An illegal immigrant was on the run last night after smuggling himself into the country on a Border Agency coach bringing immigration officers back from France.
The man is believed to have climbed under the coach, when it was parked at the Eurotunnel shuttle terminal in Calais, hiding between the fuel tank and the chassis. He clung on during the journey through the Channel tunnel and through customs and immigration checkpoints at Dover.
On arrival at the Border Agency’s depot near Folkestone, the stowaway dropped down from the coach, which was believed to have been carrying around 20 immigration officers, and was seen running away. He escaped despite the coach driver, a contractor, giving chase.
The Home Office said a full investigation is under way, with police and local immigration officers alerted. The embarrassing incident follows the revelation that the number of migrants arrested after entering the country hiding in lorries arriving from France nearly doubled in the first half of the year to 13,715.
A Home Office spokeswoman said: “An illegal entrant entered Dover by hiding underneath a coach returning from France. The coach was contracted by the UK Border Agency. The immigrant was hidden in a very small space, one that the driver had no way of knowing there was access to.”
The Border Agency was set up in April 2008 and the then home secretary, Jacquie Smith, claimed it would boost the fight against illegal immigration. The 16,000 agency staff carry out frontline duties at ports and airports, including the UK immigration desks at Calais.
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