Originally Posted by
joshnesbit
At LHR T2 and noticed there is a small area of UK Border desks - who exactly are they checking? Pax arriving on a Domestic or arriving on an Int'l potentially departing for a domestic? Never seen an immigration desk inside/before departures in the UK before?
In T2 departures? Those could only be used for spot checks on departing passengers.
Passengers arriving on a domestic will be directed straight to landside, they can only go to departures if connecting.
Passengers arriving from outside the UK and connecting to a domestic will go through immigration in the Flight Connections area, so when they arrive in airside departures they will already be considered "inside the UK" (despite then mingling with passengers who are "outside the UK").
Biometrics are used at domestic gates to confirm the "inside the UK" status before allowing boarding.
Of course nothing to do with Schengen.