Channel migrants who triggered alerts on security databases have been allowed to vanish, a bombshell report warned yesterday.
They are among scores to have fled taxpayer-funded hotels without fingerprints or photographs being taken.
Some of the arrivals were armed with guns or other weapons.
The names of at least two of the absconders were flagged on police or border security databases. In other cases, missing biometric data made it impossible to determine whether they posed a criminal – or terror – risk. A number may be in danger of exploitation through forced labour or debt bondage.
The major report was written by David Neal, the chief borders inspector, who said: ‘Put simply, if we don’t have a record of people coming into the country, then we do not know who is threatened or who is threatening.’
The revelations led last night to Home Secretary Priti Patel being accused of presiding over ‘flabbergasting’ security lapses.
The Home Office had sat on Mr Neal’s findings for five months until publishing them yesterday.
Dan O’Mahoney, Clandestine Channel Threat Commander, said: ‘Any suggestion that migrants have arrived in the UK with guns is wrong. All migrants are searched on arrival none have ever been found with a firearm.’
Read More: Channel migrants landed in Britain with GUNS borders watchdog claims
