Illegal immigrants are able to enter Britain unchallenged because there are no checks at almost half of small ports in the East of England, a damning report has found.

The Chief Inspector of Borders said that officials failed to visit 27 of the 62 small ports between February 2015 and June 2016. The report said that the lack of checks meant that there is no "visible deterrent" for people trying to smuggle illegal immigrants and illicit goods into the UK.

The report also found that the number of illegal immigrants caught near major ports nearly doubled between 2014-15 and 2015-16, rising from 233 to 423.