CARMAGEDDON: Passport check for all Channel passengers would 'SHUT THE COUNTRY DOWN'

The Sunday Express understands that Home Office chiefs are “on the verge” of announcing that the scheme will be implemented on time for its April deadline, following the conclusion of talks with Ferry companies and Eurotunnel.

Airports already conduct full passport checks for exiting passengers. The move to “plug the gaps” with Channel crossings was re-launched by the coalition Government and was originally intended to give the Home Office a full account of foreign nationals living within Britain’s borders, and many people are in UK illegally after over-staying visas.

However recently its focus has shifted, with Downing Street keenly aware of the need to keep track on would-be Jihadis aiming to leave the country. 

Last night one senior Conservative MP admitted: “We can’t focus on the immigration argument because we know there are gaps in entry checks, but the anti-terror imperative is just as important, if not more so.”

But cross-Channel operators have warned that the plan is doomed to failure, with one ferry company claiming it would “impossible” to deliver a 100 per cent check system by April, “regardless of money”.

Worryingly, another revealed the best it would be able to do is to scan the passports of just one out of every five passengers. 

Risibly, even then those details would be sent to the Home Office only after the traveller in question had already left the UK.

Others complained of their fury at having a “politically motivated targets” imposed which would cost millions of pounds to implement – costs that would be eventually be passed on to the consumer.

he situation is even worse for Eurotunnel, used by 2.5 million cars a year on a roll-in-roll-off basis from its hub in Folkestone, Kent.

Last night sources confirmed that, since Eurotunnel was never designed with advance booking in mind, there wasn’t even the space in its main terminal to accommodate sophisticated IT scanners. 

They warned that the 30 seconds average to currently takes for a family car carrying five passengers to move on to a train would increase to three minutes – 30 seconds per passenger. This would lead to “queues stretching to the motorway”, missed slots with trains leaving empty and cost “millions of pounds” very quickly.

“Border security is a massive issue for all of us, as carriers across an international border border security, passenger security and staff security are all vital, and we support the Government in its ambition to provide the securest means of transport across the border, while keeping this country safe,” said a spokesman for Eurotunnel.

“But what we do not support is when they go to the point if killing off business, trade and tourism, by the imposition of unrealistic levels of control.”

Last night a spokesman for P&O, one of the five main cross-Channel ferry operators, said: “We are still in talks. But the fact is that it has been left to the carriers to bear this responsibility for these exit checks, and we don’t currently have the technology to be able to match passports against bookings. 

“All we can do is scan passports as presented, and pass them on to the Home Office later. Anything else will cost the cross-Channel industry millions of pounds and, with all the will in the world, would not be deliverable for another year at least. After all we are using legacy IT systems that date back 30 years. 

“Ultimately, we’d need to have a reservation system that it effectively linked with the Border Control system to flag up red flags.

“In Dover we can deal with 600 coaches in 48 hours. Our whole advantage over air travel is that we don’t have the queues that airports do. If we are expected to check every passport of every coach passenger the whole of East Kent is going to grind to a halt. Nothing will be moving.”

The exit check problem has been plaguing Governments for decades.

Removed for EU destinations by John Major’s Government in 1994, it was then eliminated altogether by Tony Blair in 1998.

Labour tried to reintroduce when it launched the £750m e-Border scheme during the last Government. Designed to collate and store on a single database information on all passengers who enter and leave the UK, it failed to deliver and how now been abandoned.

The P&O spokesman added: ”If you present us with a false passport against a false booking, and the two match, you will probably go straight through.

“There is no way we will be able to have any kind of passport checking linked to our legacy reservations systems by April – it’s physically impossible, even if you spend £100 million. We’re dealing with legacy reservations systems that are 30 years old. It won’t happen in under a year. That’s why the best we can do is to use scanners.

“They can either agree that they will work with us over a longer timeframe or they can impose their will. If they impose a system, it still won’t lead the Government achieving its aim and it’s going to cost an absolute fortune.

“Ultimately it’s the consumer who will end up picking up the tab for this.” 

A Home Office spokesman said: "We will deliver on the government's commitment to introduce comprehensive exit checks on commercial international air, sea and rail routes by April 2015.

 "Advance Passenger Information will used as the basis for providing the check in the majority of cases, and provides the opportunity to take action against persons of interest at the border inbound and outbound. Where API is not provided, alternative solutions will be implemented in conjunction with carriers and ports.”