An English couple have been fined £1,500 (€1,800) after unknowingly transporting a migrant stowaway in their motorhome upon returning home from vacation in France.
The charge relates to an incident on Oct. 15 last year when Adrian and Joanne Fenton drove back across the English Channel to their home in Essex, southeast England.
As they unloaded their belongings, Mr. Fenton noticed a pair of sneakers protruding from the rear of the bicycle rack attached to the top of the vehicle. Upon closer inspection, he found an illegal migrant tightly concealed inside.
“He went to get the bikes, and while he slipped off and unlocked the cover, which was really tight, he saw two sneakers and suddenly thought, ‘I didn’t leave any trainers here,’” Mrs. Fenton told the Daily Mail newspaper. “Then he saw that there were two feet inside.”
The couple immediately called the police who detained the stowaway upon their arrival. The migrant claimed to be 16 years of age and from Sudan. As an unaccompanied minor, he will be given preferential treatment and afforded greater protections under U.K. and international law than an adult.
The couple assumed they had done their duty by informing the authorities and considered the matter closed. However, two months later the pair received an official notice from the Home Office informing them of a hefty fine imposed for failing to prevent unauthorized entry into the U.K.
Contacted by email, the governmental department responsible for home affairs claimed the couple had failed to “check that no clandestine entrant was concealed in the vehicle.”
In response, Joanne Fenton told her local BBC radio station that she found the penalty “exceptionally unfair,” adding, “We are so angry and frustrated because we did everything we were supposed to do.” The couple is contesting the fine, arguing that the migrant was hidden outside the vehicle, not inside, and that they had no reasonable way of knowing he was there.
Mr. Fenton expressed his frustration at the treatment afforded to returning holiday-makers by the British government, insisting that meticulous checks are simply not possible and that, given the sheer number of migrants congregating at the ferry terminals near Calais, it would be unsafe to continuously stop and check for stowaways, and could even prove to be counter-intuitive.
“It’s dangerous enough when you drive through France, and you can ask anyone who drives through France and comes up to the borders,” he said. “These clandestines are everywhere. So, to stop and go outside and check your vehicle all the time is dangerous. How can you do that?”
“How safe is it for the everyday holidaymaker to get out of their vehicle, whether they are towing a caravan, whether driving a van, whether driving a motor home? How safe is it for us to keep getting out and checking that they are not grabbing underneath? It’s impossible,” Mrs. Fenton added.
A Home Office spokesperson defended the penalty system, stating that the fines are “designed to target negligence rather than crime.” Nonetheless, the Fentons remain frustrated and are considering legal action, although they believe it may be futile. “We will only waste more money and end up having to pay the fine,” they said.