31 August 2012
Officers of the Jersey Customs and Immigration Service have recently detected a number of attempts by Albanian nationals to enter Jersey illegally. All were travelling on false or stolen Italian identity documents.
On 18 August a man and woman purporting to be Italian nationals arrived on a boat from Carteret. Examination of their Italian documents revealed one to be stolen and the other counterfeit and, during a search of their luggage, Albanian passports were found.
They admitted paying thousands of euros for the documents and travel costs and said their intention had been to travel on to London. Although they did not know each other, they had been told to travel as a couple to avoid suspicion. Both were refused entry into Jersey, returned to France and were detained by the French authorities and charged with immigration offences.
On 23 August, two Albanian men arrived in the Island, again on the boat from Carteret, travelling on forged Italian identity documents. Once again Albanian passports were found following a baggage search and the men were returned to France.
The most recent attempt was made on 24 August when the French Police aux Frontières in St Malo advised Jersey officers that an Albanian national travelling on a forged Italian identity document had been detained on departure from France. The French police believed that this person was travelling to Jersey with two other men.
The men were stopped on arrival. Both were travelling on Italian identity documents, one of which was forged. The man with the forged document said he was Albanian and the other, an Italian national, was suspected of attempting to facilitate the Albanian’s illegal entry.
The pair returned to France where they were charged and will appear before a French court on 25 October.
Director of Law Enforcement for the Customs and Immigration Service, David Nurse, said “These events reinforce the need to maintain strong border controls as part of our ongoing commitment as part of the Common Travel Area. It is believed that all of the Albanian nationals were attempting to use Jersey as a back-door into the UK, assisted by an Italian facilitator. Working closely with the French Police aux Frontières we believe that this particular route has been successfully disrupted. We are also investigating the circumstances surrounding these attempts to discover if any persons from Jersey were involved."
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