by Graham
Tutthill

Home Secretary Alan Johnson has seen for himself the work UK
Border Agency staff are doing at Dover docks to prevent illegal
goods and people being smuggled into the country.

He watched a new scanner being operated to check the contents of
a lorry before before heading to an examination shed where lorries
are subjected to physical searches.

And he also saw a consignment of half a million cigarettes which
had been discovered among a cargo of bolts in a lorry a few days
earlier.

Revenue and Customs officer Richard Fagg explained to the Home
Secretary how the cigarettes had been found hidden the lorry when
it arrived from Poland.

Mr Johnson praised the work of the Border Agency staff, and said
the new scanner was one of the high tech ways that they were able
to detect smuggled goods.

He also said he supported the work of the French authorities to
stop illegal immigrants crossing the Channel, and said the number
coming to the UK was now a quarter of what it was at the height of
the people smuggling some 10 to 15 years ago.

And he confirmed Prime Minister Gordon Brown's pledge that the
government would not force Dover Harbour Board to privatise the
Port of Dover, but would help find other ways of attracting
investment for future developments at the port.

Video: Alan Johnson
talking about Dover's Buckland Estate

Mr Johnson then went on to meet representatives of the community
on Dover's Buckland Estate, and to see how life had improved for
the residents since the various agencies, with local people, had
worked together to provide more facilities.