Letter: Instead of trying to annex Northern Ireland, EU should move customs officials to ports at Antwerp, Rotterdam and Le Havre to stop incoming drugs

Most people could be forgiven for assuming that the only ‘threat’ to the safety of the EU single market was Northern Ireland and it its physical connection via a land border to the Republic of Ireland (RoI).

Indeed, such is the effort put into imposing checks on goods coming into Northern Ireland that one could be forgiven for believing that every other entry point into the EU was totally watertight except for those here in NI.

However, that is not the case.

Just a cursory scan of European papers will show that Antwerp, Rotterdam and Le Havre are virtually no-go areas for customs checks as they are used by ruthless cartels to swamp the EU with drugs.

In an article in the Sunday Telegraph one Le Havre customs officer said they can only inspect 1% of containers entering the Port. Officials in Antwerp report that just 2% of all containers are checked.

So, what else apart from drugs, are entering the EU in the other 98% of those containers?

It would be reasonably safe to assume that at least some of them contain goods that would cause Her Excellency Ursula von der Leyen to have a seizure if she felt such items were entering through Northern Ireland.

Perhaps the EU, instead of trying to annex Northern Ireland by subterfuge, might move the customs officials from our ports to Antwerp, Rotterdam and Le Havre to stop the deluge of drugs damaging European Union society and ensure that the same rigorous checks which are imposed here are carried out all goods entering its own major ports.

Tom Nash, Derriaghy