I'm A Trucker Not An Immigration Officer

[whiskeryron]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33066763

Why are our hard working truckers being held to ransom by the UK authorities & being fined when illegal immigrants are found in the back of their trucks that they ( the drivers ) have no knowledge of ?

[bednobs]

because i presume that some do have knowledge and supplement their income this way

[Old_Geezer]

I have never approved of authorities passing on their responsibilities to others and allowing them to be punished if they failed to comply. I can see one needs a disincentive to those who would smuggle folk in, but I'm unsure this blanket "it's your responsibility now because I said so" is really the morally correct way to go about things.

But this sort of trick is not so uncommon. In my experience even within a company upper managers push responsibility downwards to middle and lower management so they can be free to play at business. If it can go all the way down to load up the workers, and stress them out, so much the better. After all they aren't paid as much, give them the hassle & blame.

[Broseph]

/Why are our hard working truckers being held to ransom by the UK authorities & being fined when illegal immigrants are found in the back of their trucks that they ( the drivers ) have no knowledge of ?/

Do you know every trucker personally and could give a good character reference as well as cheerily put your house up as collateral for their bail if required?

Probably not.

[whiskeryron]

I really cannot see why when found ALL illegals are not immediately arrested & returned to Calais for the French to sort out. I think we would soon see different tactics in force.

[New Judge]

The reason it is done, ron, is because it's easy meat.

Contrary to the theory put forward by bednobs, the vast majority of truckers and their employers fined under the legislation have no knowledge of their stowaways. The Polish gentlemen recently arrested following the Harwich container fiasco are exceptions. It's the way the UK passes the buck from the lawbreakers to law abiding workers and businessmen. They fine truckers for stowaways; they fine business owners for employing people with no right to be here. Whilst they are finding the money for their fines the real culprits are given travelling instructions to Lunar House and sent on their way (to disappear into the darkness).

If you care to witness the goings-on at Calais (as I have) you will see that drivers of large commercial vehicles have absolutely no chance of preventing determined clandestines from gaining access to their trucks. They employ all sorts of ruses to achieve their aims from blockading the routes to the terminal so that lorries are forced to stop, to cutting seals on curtain sided trailers and resealing them after gaining access (among many other things).

They have been given free rein to roam across mainland Europe courtesy of the Schengen Agreement. Those that end up in Calais should have claimed asylum (if that indeed is their aim) in the first safe country they encounter (and that’s certainly not France). But the authorities have no will to police the EU’s borders and properly apply the UN’s rules relating to refugees. They prefer instead to pick the pockets of law abiding workers and businessmen because it's far easier and makes them look as if they are doing something.