Woolas: Border controls are working

My Account
Logout

Create an Evening Standard Account

Use your social network

Save time by using your existing account to sign in to Evening Standard

We'll never share your information or post anything to your account without your permission

Welcome! Sign in here

Use your social network

Save time by using your existing account to sign in to Evening Standard

We'll never share your information or post anything to your account without your permission

Forgot your password ?

Registration

* indicates fields that are mandatory

Email *

Password *

Confirm Password *

First name *

Surname *

Postcode *

Country *

Mobile phone number

Username *

Gender *

Year of birth *

When you sign up...

You will have access to all our online competitions, discounted offers and can post comments on our site.

You will also receive The Weekender newsletter sent every Thursday - it’s full of fantastic offers and ideas for the weekend. You can update your email preferences in your account page when you log in.

Other newsletters and emails

Homes & Property Newsletter - Yes I want to receive the weekly email with all the latest news on property in the capital

Occasionally we would also like to send you relevant emails detailing specific offers either from ourselves or carefully selected partners. If you would prefer not to receive these then please tick the appropriate boxes below. We will never pass on your details.

I do not want to receive additional offers and information from the Evening Standard

I do not want to receive additional offers and information sent by Evening Standard on behalf of carefully selected partners

Terms and Conditions

* I have read, understood and agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of Evening Standard

Registration

Mail Sent for Registration Confirmation.

A confirmation email has been sent. Please activate your account by clicking on the activation link sent in your mail box.

Mr Woolas insisted the Government's border controls are working after an investigation by GMTV found hundreds of refugees, some reportedly as young as eight, were trying to board lorries in Calais in a bid to get into Britain.

He told GMTV the UK's borders are tougher than that between the United States and Mexico.

"We are, on the whole, stopping people getting through," he said. "We're counting people in and counting people out."

Mr Woolas said the Government was compiling a database of travel records, which will help track millions of people, but he admitted that "some inevitably do get through".

But shadow immigration minister Damian Green said Britain had "big problems".

"Our borders are not secure enough," he told GMTV.

"If people thought our borders were properly secure then they wouldn't be gathering in woods and living in squalor on the other side of the Channel. We're an island and it ought to be relatively easy to defend our borders. Unfortunately, for the past 10 years, our borders have been much too porous."

He said the Tories were proposing a specialist border police force to tackle the problem.

"We need to be able to control our borders," he said. "The French should be doing much more than they are doing to discourage people from gathering there, and we should do much more than we're doing actually to make our borders secure so that people don't think that Britain is a soft touch."