---

Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [Lords]

I bear in mind what you said, Mr. Deputy Speaker, but the fact is that with human nature being what it is, territorial police forces are jealous of their geographical jurisdiction and do not want another police force in it. In the vast majority of county police forces up and down the country, if somebody draws to a police officer's attention the fact that there is an illegal immigrant or somebody who appears to be an illegal immigrant, what happens? The police give them a card and tell them to go to Lunar house, Croydon, and they just disappear into the ether. Local commanders do not feel able to draw the authorities' attention to somebody who looks like an illegal immigrant, nor are they charged with doing that. That is the reality both sides of the River Thames outside the Port of Tilbury police, the Port of Dover police, the Belfast Harbour police and the Tees and Hartlepool Harbour police. At all the other big ports, it is open season.