Calais crisis: Sniffer dogs? We’re doomed if that’s our best, says UK haulier facing ruin

Striking ferry workers set fire to tyres in Calais in more protests

A HAULIER whose business is on the brink of collapse due to the Calais migrant crisis has blasted David Cameron’s plans for more sniffer dogs, saying they are virtually useless.

 

Phil Oakes, whose business Oakes Transport depends on access to Europe, has seen sniffer dogs in action at the French port - and how they missed 15 migrants cramming into a lorry.

 

The managing director may have to lay off two of his drivers next week as he faces a summer of revenue slashed by tens of thousands of pounds.

This week he has lost out on contracts worth £10,000, and says deliveries to and from the continent make up two thirds of his revenue.

Migrants scale a fence to make it onto the Eurotunnel

He is furious at David Cameron’s “clueless” response to the crisis, which today saw the Prime Minister promise sniffer dogs at the borders in an effort to stop the streams of migrants trying to reach the Channel Tunnel.

 

The Conservative leader also plans to move lorries parked up on the M20 to Ministry of Defence (MoD) land nearby.

Lorry drivers have seen sniffer dogs miss migrants

Mr Oakes, whose Norwich van business offers quick turnaround deliveries of time-critical goods, said: “If this is the best we are coming up with we are doomed.

“I have never read more drivel in my life.

 

I have never read more drivel in my life

Phil Oakes

“Theresa May had a go the other day and said they were putting up a fence. David Cameron said he would send sniffer dogs.

"When I was out recently they had dogs sniffing every lorry in the queue which took hours. When we got to the next round of securty checks 15 migrants were found in the back of a lorry.

“They haven’t got a clue, they are not in the real world.”

A migrant jumps over a fence into Channel Tunnel

Mr Oakes said the plans to park lorries on MoD land as part of Operation Stack, instead of the M20 where they are currently, will not make a difference to businesses.

 

The plans only help holiday makers, he claimed, and still cannot win contracts.

He added: “I can’t send any drivers over there because I can’t give assurances of delivery times and it’s killing us financially.

“A lot of us will go out of business.

The approaches to the Ferry and Docks area of Dover Harbour in Kent

 

“We lost £10,000 in a week but some big hauliers are losing ten times that.

“That £10,000 might not mean a lot to Mr Cameron and his chums but it means a lot to me and my staff.

“It’s frightening.

“I’m really angry. This is my livlihood, and my staffs’ livlihood. We have been saying there is a problem for months and months and months.

“This is not a political statement, this is a transport person feeling very let down. We are coming to the end of the line.”