by N. Peter Kramer
Martin Banks, a British journalist in Brussels, was stopped and detained by the British police authorities at the Eurotunnel terminal in Calais. He was interrogated for six hours about his journalistic activities in Brussels by the UK Border Force under “Schedule 3 Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019” without ever being told what he was suspected of.
Banks, 62, is married to a Belgian lady and has two teenage children. He has been a journalist for 42 years and living in Belgium since 2001. On 26 February, they all went to the UK by car for a week’s holiday. He had not been back to his country of origin for two years because of the pandemic. It was about 9.30am when the family arrived at the Eurotunnel terminal in Calais (France), a few days after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. They were stopped as they were going to pass through UK Border Force control and Banks was escorted by three officers into the police station on the “British side.”
He was taken to a small room in the station where he was read his rights by an “Examining Officer” in the presence of another officer. He declined an invitation for legal representation as he did not know why he would need one and because his repeated questions about the nature of the police suspicions remained unanswered. He was just told he was being detained to be questioned by the UK Border Force in charge of “hostile actors” and “hostile acts” under Schedule 3 of the Counter Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019. In the meantime, his wife and their two children were staying in their car, unaware of what was happening to their husband/father, but the vehicle was thoroughly searched, and items were taken away.
Over the course of six hours, the examining officer and his colleagues asked him hundreds of questions. These were mainly related to his journalistic work about the coronavirus pandemic, Ukraine and Russia but also about each item collected from his car: a two-year old issue of the New York Times, dozens of articles printed from the internet, personal notes, etc. He was fully cooperative and volunteered to answer all of them. He faced numerous questions about the independent UK-based communications company he works for, how it is financed and what is its “political policy. He replied he was just a journalist, and he did not have that sort of information. There were also questions about his colleagues, their names, their titles. He was asked how he thought his reporting might "influence" policymakers and opinion makers. There were also intrusive questions about his own personal finances and income and also about when he and his family next planned to visit the UK.
At one point he was taken to another part of the station. There, another officer took his DNA, numerous photographs from various angles and biometric fingerprints. Police produced a copy of a New York Times, dated February 2020, containing an article about the pandemic, not written by him, and bizarrely asked him questions about it. Several times, Banks was asked about a couple of articles written around mid-2021 which were, in part, critical of the vaccine policy and performance of the UK, but also the EU and Belgium. He was then again informed that the maximum period one can be detained in such a way is six hours.
When the six-hour mark was eventually reached, the Examining Officer told him he would have to retain several possessions which the police had taken from his car and that he could retain them for a maximum of seven days. These were: his laptop; a Belgian mobile phone; a UK mobile phone; five DVDs containing family photos, and a memory card for his camera. Due to the seizure of the laptop, he could not, as he had planned, use the laptop during the seven days he spent in the UK; he could not make or receive phone calls; he had no access to his emails; he could not take photos of his family holiday and could not, as intended, use the DVDs for a gift for his daughter’s upcoming birthday. At the end of the six-hour procedure, he was told he would not be arrested or charged, without any further word of explanation.
On 3 March, Banks received a phone call from an officer who told him he could collect back the seized items. On 6 March, his due date for returning to Belgium, he collected the items from a police station, located close to the Eurotunnel site at Folkstone. The reasons of this horrendous experience which has left Banks and his family traumatised remains unexplainable and unexplained by the British authorities. The deprivation of freedom for six hours of a British journalist could be deemed as an extremely serious attempt to curtail the freedom of the media and journalists, all the more so as his laptop was confiscated for seven days.
Banks readily and freely acknowledges that the border force has a "job to do" but in the context of this case he feels strongly that their approach was excessive and over-bearing. His current and primary focus now is on trying to get some reassurance that this will not be repeated when he next visits the UK.
Since the events of 26 February at Calais Banks has subsequently contacted numerous people and organisations about the incident, including journalist unions, MPs, rights NGOs and former MEPs. All have expressed “shock and horror” at the experience and pledged to lend their support by contacting the UK authorities, including the Home Office and UK Border Force.
The union representatives include the National Union of Journalists, Union and International Press Institute plus the Flemish journalist union VVJ. UK MPs include Labour members Diane Abbott and Chris Evans, along with Greens MP Caroline Lucas, plus Lord (Richard) Balfe, a member of the House of Lords. The Brussels based NGO Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF) and Statewatch have also taken up the case.
Banks has also lodged a formal complaint with the UK Border Force but, aside from an automated response, is yet to hear back. He also contacted the UK Embassy to Belgium and the UK Mission to the EU. In a reply, the embassy emailed, “The British Embassy Brussels is not able to offer advice or interventions on personal matters relating to UK immigration and border controls.” The UK Mission told him “it may be that a member of consular staff from the British Embassy in Brussels is best placed to give you advice on your options, including whether you want to take this matter up directly with UK Border Force.”
