Originally Posted by
orbitmic
Which, with due respect, is saying more about the accuracy of what you "see" than about reality.
As an example, France's border force alone, despite plenty of automation (but less than in the UK) is over 25% larger than the UK's despite having nearly twice fewer international entries (France gets a lot more visitors than the UK but the vast majority arrive from another Schengen country without border checks).
As for the US, its border force is 6 times larger than the UK's and no, that's nowhere near proportional to the number of entries either.
The whole suggestion that somehow, automated border control would not automatically imply very significant cuts in border force numbers (or that its reversal would not necessarily entail significantly larger needs for staff) is a complete non starter.
I’m not addressing the economics or staffing of the border per se. My point really is that until there is full reciprocity, EU entries should be also subject to whatever queues materialise.
I don’t doubt your numbers re staffing in France , US or anywhere else. What I ‘see’ is a limited number of desks available to foreign visitors regardless of how many staff are actually on the payroll.