2. What discussions will the Welsh Government hold with the relevant authorities in light of the tragic news that the bodies of 39 people were found in a lorry container in Essex, having entered the UK via Holyhead? 357

Llywydd, I'd like to begin by putting on the record the thoughts of myself and the entire Welsh Government—our thoughts are with the families who are suffering truly horrific news today. You'll understand that I don't have all of the details of this terrible incident, and I think it is right and proper that a full police investigation takes place into the incident. Suffice it to say that, as a Welsh Government, we will, of course, play our full and collaborative part in that investigation relating to our areas of responsibility, in any passage that the vehicle involved may have made through Wales.

Thank you for that response, Minister. This is a heartbreaking case, that 39 people felt the need to put their lives at risk in this way and that those 39 people lost their lives in such a horrific manner. My sympathies are with them and their families. No matter how far from home they may have been, the grief is the same. Now, there are many questions arising from this—humanitarian questions, certainly, about why these individuals had been driven to take this step, but there are also practical questions arising too.

What we need to do immediately, I think, is to start to ask some of the practical questions about how and why. These questions need to be asked alongside the police investigations that clearly will be beginning immediately. How is it that this lorry was able to pass through Holyhead undetected in this way? Why did those on board, or others associated with this tragedy, decide that Dublin-Holyhead was to be the chosen crossing? I've heard people complain that somehow EU membership was to blame for Holyhead being a rather too open border. Let me say that decisions to cut jobs over the years at Holyhead have been nothing to do with the EU and far predate any discussions on Brexit; they've been about cuts and austerity and nothing else. So, what assurances have you sought, Minister, about the level of border control staffing at Holyhead, including a lack of permanent immigration enforcement officers? I and others, like the Police and Crime Commissioner for North Wales, Arfon Jones, have long raised concerns about fears of a lack of border resources at Holyhead. The commissioner got a response from the Home Office when he pursued this, saying the Government is aware of the vulnerabilities of the common travel area—aware, perhaps, but what did they do about it in terms of increasing resource?

Alex Carlile QC, when he was a reviewer of anti-terror legislation, was raising issues around border policing and anti-terror measures at Holyhead 20 years ago. In so many ways, Holyhead has been overlooked as a port, I fear. Whilst Dover is firmly on the agenda as the UK's busiest roll-on, roll-off ferry port, Holyhead seems ignored as the second busiest, with about 400,000 lorries passing through annually. This is not acceptable, either in the context of Brexit and the ignoring of Holyhead in the Yellowhammer document, for example, or now in the context of immigration and this tragic loss of human life. As we know, it's thought that the lorry came from Bulgaria and arrived in Wales on Saturday in Holyhead. Seamus Leheny, Northern Ireland policy manager for the Freight Transport Association, is quoted by the Press Association today as saying:

'If the lorry came from Bulgaria,'— as we believe it did—

'getting into Britain via Holyhead is an unorthodox route.'

He went on to say:

'People have been saying that security and checks have been increased at places like Dover and Calais, so it might be seen as an easier way to get in by going from Cherbourg or Roscoff over to Rosslare, then up the road to Dublin.'

It's a long way around, he said, and it'll add an extra day to the journey. The question I think we need to ask is: has a lack of resource put in by the Home Office in Holyhead made our ports vulnerable and in so doing added to the already significant vulnerability of these 39 who have now been found dead? I spoke with one Holyhead councillor earlier today, Councillor Trefor Lloyd Hughes, about how he too had been raising these concerns for some time. Will you join him and me in inviting Home Office Ministers to Holyhead to see for themselves why this port needs real investment and to impress on the Home Office the prioritisation that Holyhead deserves as Wales's busiest and the UK's second-busiest roll-on, roll-off ferry port?

Can I thank Rhun ap Iorwerth for his questions? Of course we will be inviting Home Office Ministers to Holyhead port. Is the port vulnerable? Well, let's allow the investigators to answer that following a thorough inquiry into what's happened. But I can say that, from my experience, there is no lack of professionalism at Holyhead with border security. Whether there is a question about capacity, well, let's let the investigators look closely into that.

I think Rhun ap Iorwerth raises a very serious question of why did 39 people apparently feel the need to put their lives at risk. I do hope that we take time just to acknowledge the terrible loss of life and the damage that this is causing to many families. We don’t know where yet. We don't know their identities, we don't know whether they were indeed from Bulgaria. But I would say this: sometimes it's easy for us to talk about borders in abstract and artificial ways, but the reality is that borders and the arrangements at them are also about people; they're about human lives. And we should, I think, never forget the grave seriousness and the tragic human costs that can occur at those points of crossing. We saw back in 2000 a significant number of lives lost again when more than 50 people, I believe it was, suffocated in the back of a lorry and were discovered in Dover. Numerous people have died in lorries since, and I think we should reflect on the reasons why, most often because people are escaping from appalling conditions. 

Llywydd, I don't wish to speculate on the reasons why the lorry appears to have entered the UK through Holyhead. I know that there are certain comments being made by transport experts about it being an unorthodox route, if it was found that the lorry went through Cherbourg to Rosslare then up to Dublin. I really do feel that it's right and proper that the police should investigate the circumstances surrounding this absolute tragedy. 

Of course, I share your sentiments and pass on my condolences to the families of these people who've suffered a terrible, terrible experience, whatever their motivations in coming here might have been. It's actually several years since I first raised in this Chamber a concern raised with me that Holyhead was a soft spot for people smuggling into the UK. Haven of Light, a non-profit organisation focused on prevention, awareness-raising and support for survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking in north Wales, told me in May that they'd never been able to find any real answers as to whether or not the crossing from Ireland to Holyhead and vice versa are safe, though what they're being told by members of the public and senior clergy is that there are often suspicions that people are being brought into the UK by the ferries at Holyhead. They'd previously told me that the main smuggling lines through Holyhead came from eastern Europe, particularly Romania and Bulgaria, and also from Vietnam, and they also told me that they were told last October that Holyhead was now sorted.

Kevin Hyland OBE, the United Kingdom's first Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, having previously been the head of the London Metropolitan Police's human trafficking unit, told me that cases referred in Wales last year included, specifically, 10 victims from Vietnam. He now works for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe on support for victims and survivors, and is Ireland's representative on the Council of Europe's group of experts on action against trafficking in human beings. He also speaks at the UN Security Council on these matters. And, again, he told me personally that across the UK and globally, denial around the issue of what human trafficking manifests itself as is paramount. He said that there's too much back-slapping, when 99.6 to 99.7 per cent of victims are missed across the world, and only 0.35 per cent of perpetrators were convicted last year globally.

So, I've got two questions: one, would you be willing, or with appropriate colleagues, to meet Kevin Hyland, who is perhaps the leading global expert on this matter, who is very eager to engage with the Welsh—[Inaudible.]—and Welsh Government on this matter? And, in the shorter term, perhaps you can give a quicker answer: what dialogue has the Welsh Government's own anti-slavery co-ordinator had with Stena Line and Irish Ferries, not just today or since this tragic news, but over recent months and years since this soft spot was first highlighted?

Can I thank Mark Isherwood for his questions? Yes, I would be more than willing to meet with Kevin Hyland, but I think it would also be helpful if a Minister from the Home Office were to agree to do so as well. I think it's important to stress right at this moment that we are yet to receive any firm information that would confirm that this case is linked to people smuggling, modern slavery or another crime, but obviously, the facts speak for themselves: 39 people have found dead in a lorry that travelled from eastern Europe.

In cases of modern slavery, our Welsh Government anti-slavery co-ordinator works with the key agencies to identify any lessons that will help us to tackle this form of horrendous crime. We are in touch with the Home Office. We are in touch with the investigators to learn as much as we possibly can, and to apply any lessons we can glean from this incident, and apply them as soon possible.

I thank the Minister.