By JAMES SLACK Labour's £1.2billion 'electronic borders' scheme to protect Britain from illegal immigrants and terrorists descended into a shambles last night. The project's success depends on logging every passenger movement in and out of the UK so police, border guards and the security service know who is here. But, in order for the scheme to be ruled legal by EU bureaucrats, the Government has been forced to make a raft of concessions to Brussels. Hole: Concessions to the EU to allow Labour's 'electronic borders' scheme mean EU citizens can still enter the country even if they refuse to hand over their personal details in advance These include EU citizens and their relatives - regardless of nationality - being allowed to enter the UK even if they refuse to hand over their personal details in advance. Effectively, the crucial compulsory element of the eborders scheme has been stripped away for millions of people. Even non-EU citizens will be entitled to fly to Britain without providing the details in advance to eborders so they could be scrutinised. They could, however, then be refused entry. There is also a promise that carriers - such as airlines - will not face sanctions if they do not pass on passenger data. It leaves a potentially gaping hole at the heart of a flagship policy which was supposed to make borders secure. The fiasco emerged on a day of drama for the Home Office, which had been insisting all was going to plan with the hugely expensive project. The scheme involved forcing passengers to give a raft of details before making any journey via UK ports and airports so these could be shared among police and customs officials. The data included credit card details, holiday contact numbers, travel plans, email addresses and even any previous missed flights. They were then supposed to be checked against lists of terrorists, criminals and immigration offenders. Those who failed the checks would have been refused permission to fly. But in a report shown to the Home Office yesterday, MPs on Westminster's home affairs committee said the policy was likely to be struck down by EU law. EU countries must allow free movement of each others' citizens as long as they hold a passport - a right which demanding advance travel information would infringe. Confronted with this, the Home Office said it had, just a few hours earlier, received a letter from the EU Commission. But it emerged that, in order for eborders to be judged in accordance with EU law, the Home Office had had to make the concessions. Shadow Immigration Minister Damian Green said: 'It seems extraordinary that the Government hasn't established whether it can impose this system on travellers, and it looks from this letter as it cannot. 'This is a huge embarrassment for ministers. They have set up this elaborate, hugely expensive system and the Commission is telling them it only works if people if people volunteer.'A gaping hole in our £1.2bn 'eborder' net: Crackdown is hopelessly diluted to meet EU law
Last updated at 3:48 AM on 18th December 2009
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1236806/A-gaping-hole-1-2bn-eborder-net-Crackdown-hopelessly-diluted-meet-EU-law.html#ixzz0a4jGPcIP
Friday, 18 December 2009
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