nufnuf77

Flew in from VIE last week and we were advised by the captain that the Border Force would be checking the documents when leaving the aircraft. I showed my passport and asked whether we are now officially in UK (accross the border) but they said no.

What was the reason for this? And do you have to show documents at this kind of spot check before the actual UK border?

Just wondering

rapidex

They were probably looking for a specific person.People with outstanding European arrest warrants often think transiting London is safe because they do not enter.

nufnuf77

Good to know we might have had a criminal aboard , though departing from VIE it should have been spotted?

Internaut

Or possibly someone returning from Iraq or Syria.....

Edit: I guess the thought of having a jihadi on-board isn't so funny .

paul4040

Indeed.

They were probably looking for a named individual. Last time I visited IST it was mad, even in the fast track lane. A lot of single men with certain complexions had been singled out to wait to one side.

ppp909

I've had this returning from Doha. Was specifically asked if I'd been in either of those places.

Geordie405

I have had it in both Italy and Germany where passports / identity cards were checked leaving the plane. In Germany one guy was hauled away for further questioning.

BLHD

I wish you the very best of luck should you choose not to comply.

I had the same inbound from DXB last summer, the individual who had been sat next to me for the previous 7 hours sparked interest from the UKBA officers!

businesstraveller

Same experience for me on a flight from Addis Ababa to Frankfurt with a picking-up stop at Khartoum. I was pleased to note that the people who ignored the boarding queue and walked straight to the gate at Addis were the same people who were getting pulled up by German immigration.

GUWonder

Flights from VIE -- much like from IST -- have seen an increase in border control authorities doing fishing expeditions on arrival.

While some of these gate area searches on arrival are hunts for specific individuals based on flags drawn up by way of APIS data processing flagging a specific individual or group on a given flight, the huge ramp up in these on-arrival searches are a "show of farce" that is but a wild fishing expedition -- a fishing expedition largely for people who seek to claim asylum/refugee status after having fled SW Asia/Turkey/Africa or may have been engaged in militant activities there. When it comes to those lawfully entitled to asylum somewhere, catching them at the gate enables sending them more quickly/easily/cheaply to the "safe" point from which they just came. Eventually, even wild fishing expeditions can catch something/someone -- they have already sometimes.

HarryKUK

I was stopped on the jetty by UKBA arriving from MAD on Friday (6Feb). I wasn't aware flights from within the EU received such visits, though I have had it before when arriving from further away (Mumbai, for example). I was asked a few questions about my travel patter, quick flick through the passport, and then I was on my way.

GUWonder

IST and various other Turkish airports and bus ports now have dedicated risk analysis centers/units involved where the authorities pull up/out passengers and interview them as part of the hunt for militants going to/from Iraq and Syria. They don't go just based on looking for named individuals -- more commonly, by the point where people end up in the special passport control line and/or the RAC process, the authorities did so even without the name coming up as flagged in the Turkish-accessed systems.

Calchas

The British police have exceptionally broad powers to detain, search and require identification from you while you are in an airport, provided your reason for being there is to travel by air.

This can cause a lot of problems for domestic passengers who are not actually obliged to bring any identification with them ...

The broadness of these powers is currently being challenged by David Miranda (in Miranda v. Home Secretary and others) after he was detained for several hours during a transit at Heathrow. [http://www.headoflegal.com/2014/02/1...days-judgment/] However, there is no political chance that any court below the Supreme Court will agree with him, and even if they do (unless on a Human Rights ground) I imagine the government would reverse it pretty swiftly.

stifle

Aside from all the above good reasons, it is also done when there is a belief that there may be on board passengers who will seek to destroy their passports or travel documents in the airport toilets before presenting at immigration control, with the intent of frustrating their removal from the country.

Calchas

Why not do it on the way then?

I know KLM (presumably at the request of the destination immigration authority) sometimes require photocopies of travel documents before certain passengers are permitted to board the aircraft.