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Holyhead Port is being used as a backdoor route for illegal immigration, it’s been claimed. So far this year, a total of 177 people have been refused entry and removed from the UK’s second busiest passenger ferry port. The Home Office said people attempt to avoid checks by moving within the Common Travel Area (CTA), a zone that allows British and Irish citizens to travel between the UK, Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands without a passport. Individuals, sometimes backed by gangs, re-attempt entry to the UK at places like Holyhead - via Dublin - after being turned back at airports such as Heathrow and Gatwick. Last week, three Romanians with previous immigration offences were returned after trying to enter through Holyhead Port, the BBC reports . The same system is also being used to transport cigarettes and proceeds-of-crime cash via the Anglesey port. On one occasion, a UK Border Force sniffer dog found €13,000 (£11,340) of suspected criminal cash in a “purpose-built concealment” in a lorry searched at Holyhead. On another, more than £33,000 of non-duty paid tobacco and cigarettes were discovered. Paul Harvey, a chief immigration officer, said combined operations were having an effect on organised immigration crime "seeking to exploit” the CTA. At Holyhead, officers are involved in intelligence-led operations targeting people smugglers in places like Albania. He told the BBC : "There’s absolutely an organised crime element that seeks to exploit the common travel areas that use Holyhead. We know that. But there are also individual people who seek to exploit that. “There’s also other cases, so people who seek to use this as a route to bring people in, and commodities, like drugs, alcohol, tobacco. Unfortunately, people are also commodities.” Join the North Wales Live Whatsapp community now Conservative MS Andrew RT Davies said news that illegal migrants are entering Britain through Holyhead Port was “deeply concerning”. He added: “Robust action is required to stamp it out. The message to those entering our country illegally must be clear: you are not welcome and will not be allowed to stay.” In the past year, the Home Office has ramped up efforts to target illegal working in takeaways, fast food delivery, beauty salons and car washes. By shrinking the black economy, the aim is to reduce incentives to come to Britain illegally. In the year to September 2025, more than 8,000 illegal migrants were arrested after 11,000 raids were carried out by Immigration Enforcement. During a January operation at a dairy farm in Llangedwyn, Powys, six Romanians were arrested for visa infractions. In March, a visit to a solar farm in Anglesey on March 20 led to 16 arrests and a referral notice being served on the subcontractor. The same month, four people were arrested in Bangor , Gwynedd , as part of a crackdown on organised immigration crime. And on on September 12, three illegal working arrests were made at a barbers shop in Porthmadog , Gwynedd. The UK government is under intense pressure to curb irregular arrivals into the UK, currently up 27% on the previous year. Most of these arrive via small boat across the English Channel - 36,000 since the start of 2025. UK ministers have drafted new legal powers aimed at improving border security and the asylum and immigration system. Immigration is not within the Welsh Government’s powers. Instead it has a “Nation of Sanctuary” policy for asylum seekers and refugees, helping them integrate into Welsh society Aimed at supporting people fleeing persecution and war, the policy has mostly been focused on helping Ukrainians and, to a lesser extent, Afghans. In the Senedd, Reform’s Laura Anne Jones has said the policy puts a “neon sign” over Wales welcoming “the rest of the world”. Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox As a proportion of overall spending in Wales, the policy represents less than 0.5% of the total. But Andrew RT Davies said it should be scrapped, claiming it was “acting as a pull factor encouraging more illegal migrants to come”. Find out what's happening near you
