Last week I had the huge pleasure of joining Home Office Minister Tom Pursglove on a visit to the Border Force operations at Purfleet.
The Thames Command is one of the most significant Border Force operations, covering as it does our major ports at Tilbury, London Gateway and Purfleet as well as Southend airport. The smuggling of drugs, alcohol, tobacco and indeed people is big business for organised criminal gangs with networks that operate around the world. As with so many of our public services we rarely celebrate their successes. But I never fail to be surprised by the successes that Border Force have in detecting smuggling operations. They use dogs to detect illegal migrants to great effect. Indeed one of the reasons that we see so many small boats arrive at Dover is direct result of the success of the detection operations at our Ports.
Protecting our borders is an ever increasing priority for this Government. We are currently passing legislation which will give enhanced powers to tackle illegal immigration. And more resource for Border Force and Immigration Enforcement is part of that.
And to that end Border Force is recruiting and keen to hire people from Thurrock given the importance of the facilities here in keeping our nation secure. Further information is available at www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk. They are currently looking for apprentices and I would encourage anyone with an interest in this area to apply. It offers a great and varied career in upholding our laws.
My thanks go to everyone employed in Border Force for the important and valued work they do in what can be very challenging conditions.