Thousands of migrant stowaways were caught trying to sneak into the UK last year by hiding in holidaymakers’ cars or lorries – landing unsuspecting Brits with millions worth of fines.
Drivers can be fined up to £10,000 if an illegal migrant is found hiding in their vehicle on their way to the UK, even if they had no knowledge of their existence.
Around 5,000 ‘clandestine entrants’ were found last year at UK border controls in Calais, Coquelles and Dunkirk, according to a report by the immigration and borders watchdog. Inevitably, others would have managed to evade checks.
David Bolt noted that the number of detections had fallen dramatically from more than more than 56,000 people in 2016 – before tighter security around ports and the Channel Tunnel prompted people smugglers to change their tactics to favour small boat crossings.
However, he said resources were stretched and officers ‘closely monitored’ by smugglers ready ‘to exploit any weaknesses’. He also warned of a ‘displacement effect’ if measures to clamp down on small boat crossings were successful.
The Home Office’s Clandestine Entrant Civil Penalty Scheme handed out 1,276 fines worth nearly £10million in 2023/24 to drivers who were found with migrants hiding in their vehicles, either in northern France or after crossing into the UK.
They include Adrian and Joanne Fenton, who were astonished to find a Sudanese man inside the rain cover of their bike rack when they arrived back at their Essex home following a long drive back from Calais.
The public-spirited couple immediately called police, who took the man away for processing.
Joanne and Adrian Fenton were ordered to pay £1,500 by the Home Office when they reported a migrant clinging to the back of their motorhome after returning from France. The fine was eventually rescinded
Police officers were called to Heybridge, Essex, after Adrian and Joanne Fenton discovered a migrant in a bike rack bag on the back of their motorhome
Mr Fenton was shocked to discover the Sudanese man clinging onto the motorhome from inside the bag (pictured)
Yet just over two months later, the pair were issued with a £1,500 fine by the Home Office for failing to ‘check that no clandestine entrant was concealed’ in the camper van.
The fine was later waived after sparking widespread outrage and an intervention by Sir Keir Starmer.
Speaking to MailOnline afterwards, Mr Fenton called for the law to be changed to avoid more holidaymakers being wrongly punished.
‘We’re obviously both really pleased that the fine is being rescinded and very grateful for all the public support we’ve had,’ he said.
‘But we still believe the law should be changed so innocent holidaymakers like us don’t get caught up in the same trap as we did and fined.’
They are far from the only innocent couple to unwittingly end up on the wrong side of the law, with a retired ambulance service worker previously warning Brits to be on high alert during Channel crossings.
Great-grandfather Peter Hughes, 75, from Droylsden, Tameside, was initially fined a staggering £6,000 after a Sudanese man was found hiding inside his small camping trailer at the Port of Calais in France.
After an appeal accompanied by substantial political and media pressure, this sum was eventually reduced to £150 – which he begrudgingly paid despite he and his wife, Anne, knowing nothing about the migrant’s existence.
Great-grandfather Peter Hughes (pictured, right, with his wife Anne, left) was initially told by the Home Office he was being fined a staggering £6,000
A young Sudanese man (pictured) was found by French border force officers hiding inside the small trailer attached to the couple’s converted motorhome. Their fine was later reduced
Ten suspected illegal migrants were discovered hiding in the back of a Spanish-registered lorry among crates of oranges on a motorway in Surrey last month
A police officer speaks on his phone next to several of the suspected illegal migrants
This graph compares the number of migrants found trying to sneak into the UK on vehicles and those arriving by small boat
The number of referrals for fines under the Clandestine Entrant Civil Penalty Scheme
In his report, the borders watchdog said that ‘more work’ was needed to work out why some migrants attempt to hide in vehicles rather than crossing the Channel by small boat.
He suggested that a proportion of clandestine entrants intended to remain undetected in the UK for as long as possible, while small boat migrants – by contrast – are overwhelmingly likely to claim asylum.
Hiding in vehicles presents obvious safety risks to migrants, a fact that was made obvious by a disturbing court case late last year.
Smuggler Anas Al Mustafa, 43, was convicted of assisting unlawful migration by trafficking the seven people in a specially-adapted van via a ferry between Dieppe, in France, and Newhaven, East Sussex, on February 16.
During the trial, prosecutors revealed disturbing pictures of a secret compartment he had created for the stowaways in a van, which measured just two metres wide, 194cm tall and 37cm in narrow width.
Jurors at Lewes Crown Court heard how the six men and one woman were being starved of oxygen and suffering from dehydration in the concealed space which was ‘the width of a human chest’.
Crew on the Seven Sisters ship heard pleas from inside a van on deck during the journey and used an axe to break down the fake partition that was hiding the people inside to free them.
A tiny compartment inside a van that seven migrants hid inside before being caught
The migrants climbed into the compartment through this hole
Anas Al Mustafa, 43, has been convicted of assisting unlawful migration by trafficking the seven people on February 16
The inspection report, first handed to the Home Secretary in February, was published on Tuesday after the number of small boat crossings hit a new record for the first three months of the year.
A total of 6049 migrants have crossed the Channel in small boats as of Tuesday, according to official figures.
That is already higher than the 5,435 migrants who arrived across January, February and March in 2024 – at the time, a record for the first quarter of a calendar year.
It is also well above the 3,793 arrivals in the first three months of 2023 and the 4,548 in the equivalent period in 2022.
The cumulative total for 2025 of 5,847 people is up 36 per cent on this point last year (4,306) and 59 per cent higher than at this stage in 2023 (3,683).
The French coastguard confirmed two migrants died in two days attempting to cross the Channel last Wednesday and Thursday.
One person died after being pulled from the water while the other person died after trying to cross in an overloaded boat, despite rescue efforts to save them.
The UK signed a ‘road-map’ agreement with France earlier this month aimed at bolstering co-operation to tackle people smuggling across the Channel.
The Government’s new Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill also continues through Parliament with plans to introduce new criminal offences and hand counter terror-style powers to police and enforcement agencies to crack down on people smuggling gangs.
However, Sir Keir Starmer has been criticised for failing to introduce a deterrent to cross-Channel migrants like the last government’s Rwanda scheme.
MailOnline has contacted the Home Office for comment on Mr Bolt’s report.
