Incident relating to Holyhead Port

Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:28 pm on 23 October 2019.

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Photo of Ken Skates Ken Skates Labour 3:28, 23 October 2019

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.