British Border Force Union Afraid That Fingerprinting Illegal Migrants Will Result in Violence

Fingerprints are taken of refugees as they are processed at the first registration point o
CHRISTOF STACHE/AFP via Getty Images
Kurt Zindulka

A trade union that represents the UK Border Force warned that if officials are forced to take the fingerprints of illegal migrants, then they may face a violent backlash from new arrivals.

Home Secretary Priti Patel has ordered British immigration control officials working at Eurotunnel, which connects the UK and France under the English Channel, to take the fingerprints of migrants illegally trying to board trains with the purpose of reaching the UK.

The Home Office argued that the policy would make it easier for migrants to be returned to France, should they successfully reach the UK again on a later attempt, according to the BBC.

The fingerprinting scheme would provide evidence that an illegal migrant had been in France, which theoretically would make their return to French officials easier, under the European Union’s Dublin Regulation.

In response to the decision, a spokeswoman for the ISU trade union that represents front-line immigration officers, Lucy Moreton, said: “That is quite a challenge, particularly if they really don’t want to have their fingerprints taken.”

“We don’t have digital fingerprint recorders, we only have wet ink. So you have literally got to hold their hands and roll their fingers from side to side to get a print. That’s quite a lot of avenue to fight back if that’s what they want to do. I’m very concerned about the levels of violence that will result and the fact that there will be, eventually, staff and migrants injured,” Moreton added.

The policy which was previously in place until 2010 has been reinstated amidst growing waves of illegal boat migrants crossing the Channel from France.

The Border Force trade union representative said that when the policy was in place: “All it resulted in was a lot of physical violence and individuals — both our staff and migrants being injured. And migrants deliberately harming themselves in order to damage their fingertips so that their fingerprints can’t be taken.”

“That’s not something that anyone wants to be forced to do,” she added while neglecting to mention that those entering into the country legally would not face the same treatment.

So far this year the number of illegal crossings is believed to have exceeded the total number of 2019, with over 1,000 migrants successfully reaching British shores since the national lockdown for British citizens was introduced in March.

Last week, a record 166 illegal migrants attempted the boat journey across the Channel in a single day, flying in the face of Home Secretary Priti Patel’s promise to make illegal crossings an “infrequent phenomenon by spring 2020”.

The crossings have been facilitated by French government ships, who were exposed by Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage to be escorting the small migrant filled rubber boats into British territorial waters, where they were handed over to the Border Force.

Follow Kurt on Twitter at @KurtZindulka

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