Illegal immigrants spared the gamma-ray scanner
French ban Calais lorry probes
The French have banned Brit border guards at Calais from deploying immigrant-hunting gamma-ray scanners, claiming they breach EU health and safety regulations and can only be used with the intended targets' written permission.
According to the Evening Standard, the scanners have proved somewhat successful in cutting the numbers of illegals entering the UK via France, contributing to an 88 per cent reduction in those reaching Dover in 2006.
The machines, costing £2m a pop, sweep along the exterior of lorries, revealing any illicit human cargo within, but deliver "less than a thousandth of the background radiation" anyone in their path would normally receive in a year.
The French, however, scoured the newly-introduced "Euratom" regs, designed to protect the public from radiation, and decreed the scanners cannot not be used without the immigrants first agreeing to be irradiated.
The Evening Standard notes: "Given that the illegal immigrants do not want to be found, the chances of reaching such an agreement are zero, leaving the British no choice but to stop using the machines."
A British government spokesman said: "The UK does not think that is necessary and nor do the Belgians where we also operate one of these scanners. The gamma ray scanners emit less radiation than ordinary hospital X-rays - we can't see what the problem is."
The Brits have operated border controls in Calais since 2002, and also use thermal-imaging devices and carbon dioxide detectors to flush out undesirables. ®
COMMENTS
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"Wage data suggests that the migrants may have a positive impact..."
"This is in reference to legal migration, the guys hanging off the bottom of trucks earn little and can't pay tax because they would get caught if they did."
I was responding to a poster who explicitly included *legal* migrants. Keep up.
Anyway - back to the original discussion. I don't think illegal migrants are a good thing. I just think we shouldn't be using potentially dangerous levels of radiation to control them.
>Your UK to EU border
Actually other countries in the EU kicked off this kind of crap by refusing the Poles the right to work (Although I hear we're joining in with the Bulgarians).
BTW What nationality are you and what passport do you hold that prevents you visiting various EU states without a visa?
"Wage data suggests that the migrants may have a positive impact..."
This is in reference to legal migration, the guys hanging off the bottom of trucks earn little and can't pay tax because they would get caught if they did.
Legal migration is of course a different beast.
When xenophobia turns to cowardice
"Firstly, one thing that epitomises the Register (and the English to one degree or another) is a dark sense of humour. Wake up and smell the irony!"
Rrrrrright. So all those comments at the beginning weren't being offensive, or criticising the decision to ban said instruments were in fact defending the rights of illegal immigrants. In a very humourous way.
Regarding the rest of your post, the usual BNP myths I'm afraid. Government statements include "Wage data suggests that the migrants may have a positive impact directly through their own output and indirectly through raising the productivity of others". Even migration watch don't dispute this (thought they do say it is offset by lower employment rates) . Anyway - repeat a lie often enough and it will stick.
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