Tighter checks to close Eurostar 'loophole'

THE UK Border Agency says "tighter controls" will be introduced to stop some Eurostar passengers being able to enter the UK without passport checks, the BBC reports. Yesterday the BBC reported that it had learned that people can travel from Brussels to Lille without showing passports as both are in the Schengen area, then stay on board to the UK. International Group Director Jonathan Sedgwick told MPs he was in discussion with Belgian authorities and Eurostar. He admitted the current "risk-based" checks needed improving.

 BBC Radio 4's The Report discovered the so-called "Lille loophole" through internal UK Border Agency documents which suggest some staff have faced the threat of arrest by Belgian police, for trying to stop people exploiting it.  The Schengen agreement allows passport-free travel between some European countries, but the UK is not one of them. Passengers with tickets from Brussels to Lille can board the train to London without showing a passport, but no one checks whether passengers actually get off the train at Lille and UK Border staff do not perform checks on board.  So passengers can continue on to London St Pancras, without going through further passport control and illegally enter the country. Sedgwick was questioned about the report at a session with the Commons Home Affairs Committee on Thursday. He said he was going to Belgium next week to finalise arrangements with the authorities there and Eurostar. He clashed with members of the committee for refusing to call it a loophole - saying it was not the case people could travel from Brussels, through Lille, to the UK with no checks at all. Eurostar staff also checked tickets, he said and Lille-bound passengers would face security checks on baggage - although not passport checks.

Sedgwick told them there was a "whole range of operational measures in place" adding: "We carefully monitor all trains that stop in Lille. We have arrangements in place to remove passengers from the train at Lille."

He also denied knowledge of UK border staff being threatened with arrest by Belgian police for acting to stop passengers exploiting the loophole. He said where staff had suspicions about passengers with tickets for Lille, they could carry out ticket checks at the London Eurostar terminal, St Pancras International. But he admitted: "Not every train is checked, we do it on a risk basis... when we believe it is necessary."

He added that he believed processes in Lille would change and said controls could be stepped up at St Pancras. He said the Border Agency was working "very closely" with Eurostar and Belgium to strengthen arrangements.