Just five illegal immigrants were arrested by Dover police last year, it has emerged, as the number of clandestine attempts to enter the UK tripled over the same period.
Port of Dover officers arrested 32 illegal migrants in 2014, meaning there has been an 84 per cent drop in the space of just twelve months.
Furthermore, according to figured released to the Express, the number of illegal immigrants detained (rather than arrested) dropped by 34 per cent – from 356 to 234 – amid the biggest migrant crisis since the Second World War.
Shockingly, between June and August last year, when migrants brought the port of Calais to a standstill by storming it en masse and even attempting to walk though the tunnel, officers detained or arrested only 38.
The revelation comes just a week after Home Office figures showed that the number of failed attempts by illegal migrants to enter Britain via European ports and the channel tunnel more that tripled in the past twelve months.
Since 2012, the number of attempts multiplied by a staggering 12 times.
Some have argued that the data shows British police are giving up, but UKIP’s defence spokesman Mike Hookem MEP said the numbers were falling because migrants are reaching Britain through other ports.
“They know it’s difficult to get past security in Calais – it’s a fortress round there now – although some are getting through. So they’re testing smaller ports like Dunkirk, Zeebrugge and Rotterdam, where there’s little or no security, and arriving on the east coast”, he said.
Adding: “I’ve got sympathy for the Dover police and border control around England. I’m not blaming them — these people are doing the best they can — but they’re facing redundancies and cuts.
“If there isn’t enough manpower to check vehicles, and there isn’t money being invested in new technology, what can they do?”
Responding to the figures, a spokesman for Port of Dover Police said they are not responsible for border security as “this function is undertaken by Border Force and Kent Police Frontier Operations.”
A Home Office spokesman insisted Border Force’s immigration and customs controls help “secure the UK border”.
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