The
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, DEFRA, has overall
responsibility for illegal food imports.Its latest annual review highlights the increase in the number of
seizures.It says it expects them
to increase as the deterrent effect of the Government’s policies begin to
bite.
I went
through the figures with the Environment Minister, Elliot
Morley.
The
deterrent you talk about adds up to the seizure of less than one per cent of
illegal meat imports.So ninety
nine point four per cent of illegal meat imports are getting
through.
Elliot
Morley MP:That’s an assumption and, and I don’t quite know how
you come to that figure.
AS:These are
your figures.
EM:Well I’m not sure it says it’s one per
cent.
AS:Well if
you, if you actually look at the total meat seized it’s seventy-three
tonnes.
EM:Yes that’s right.
AS:The
Government’s own estimate of illegal meat that comes into the country is twelve
thousand tonnes.
EM:Yes, we have to bear in mind that this is at airports
and in terms of the, the overall quantities of illegal meat the bulk of that
will, is, probably, large scale illegal fraud that comes in through border
inspection posts, that you’re talking there of, of container loads of meat.Now they have been seized as well.Now they aren’t in those figures that
you’re quoting there because they’re at points of entry at
airports.
AS:I, I’m not quite with you there.Are you saying that basically more meat
is seized than you actually state in your own report?
EM:Well I, I’m not quite sure to be honest with you what
report you’re referring to there.
AS:I’m actually looking at the figures, and I’ll
read from the cover, “The annual review of controls on imports of animal
products: April 2003 to March 2004: DEFRA.”
EM:I, I haven’t got that report.I’m terribly
sorry.
AS:Contrary to what the Minister said DEFRA
officials later confirmed that the report includes figures for all illegal meat
seizures, air and sea.The report
also states that the vast majority of seizures made by Customs are of small
quantity from the travelling public.
This is not the experience of Clive
Lawrence.Up until seven months ago
he was the main contractor responsible for the transport of all organic
material, animal or plant, legal or illegal, arriving at Heathrow Airport.He believes tonnes of bush meat enter
the country every month, smuggled in on flights....
...
AS:This testimony adds to a growing body of evidence
of the nature and scale of the import, not only of the meat of endangered
species but the involvement of organised criminal gangs.I put this point to the Environment
Minister, Elliot Morley.
We’ve been told by the Metropolitan Police that
they believe people who’re involved in trafficking bush meat that they’ve got
connections between that and the Adam torso murder.They’re talking about really serious
organised crime.
Elliot
Morley:Oh, there’s no two ways about that.Those people who are involved in this
kind of illegal trafficking, they are linked to organised crime.And those people who are involved in
that kind of, of area of activity are very unpleasant, nasty people and they are
hardened criminals.
AS:Well who’s doing anything about
it?
EM:The, the fact that the police, I mean I’ve mentioned
it to you, makes it very clear that action is being taken.Some people have been put in prison for
this activity, for the first time in this country I might say.And I understand that the, the Customs
so far this year have brought four successful prosecutions in relation to
smuggling.
AS:One of these was a man bringing in raw turkey and
chicken from New York; another a woman from Gambia who attempted to smuggle in
goat meat and fish.She was fined a
hundred and fifty pounds and ordered to pay a hundred and forty pounds
costs.
Critics argue that the authorities are failing to
stem the flow of bush meat into this country.But if they’re failing here what of the
African states?
.....
NW:You know, what we know is that we have a retrovirus
which is crossing the boundary, it’s crossing this bridge into human
populations.That’s what we
know.We know retroviruses have the
potential to spread globally because that’s what’s happened with HIV.It’s spread throughout the world.Whether or not this particular virus,
Simian foamy virus, is, has the ability to be transmitted or not we don’t
know.It’s at our own peril that we
don’t examine this.
AS:So the
stakes are rising.This is
potentially an issue of huge international
repercussions.
The
Environment Minister, Elliot Morley, speaking on behalf of the Government, told
me he was aware of these developments.
Elliot
Morley MP:There has been no evidence of any of these kind of
viruses coming into the UK in terms of what bush meat has been seized.But nevertheless it is a worry, and
apart from the, the impact on biodiversity you do have to be aware that there
are potential risks to humans as well.
AS:So what’s
our Government doing to, to address this problem, address the fact that we could
be looking, potentially, at another Aid type catastrophe spreading across the
globe?
EM:Well as I say there, there’s no evidence of that
coming in, into the UK.But
nevertheless we, we can’t be complacent about these things and we must be on our
guard.
AS:Our
understanding is that the Department for International Development has been
actually reducing funding, pulling out of natural resource projects, the type of
project working to stop hunting.
EM:It’s not so much that they’ve reduced spending,
they’ve put spending into, into other areas.And what they’ve been doing is putting
money in, into governance issues, into strengthening organisation.But they do put quite a lot of money
into forest management and, in terms of poverty alleviation, there’s a number of
big projects that they have.And
that also includes the bush meat issue.
AS:But the
hunting continues.The bush meat
trade is a complex issue.The
driving force is a mix of poverty and greed.It involves organised crime.There are obvious and serious risks of
the spread of disease to both the human population and domestic livestock on a
global scale.
As the
academics say: we ignore this at our peril.