Tobias-UK

British Airways has called on the UK's Border Force to tackle 'serious inefficiencies' that are causing British citizens and visitors to endure long queues and frustrating delays when arriving at UK airports.

In a submission to the Home Office, the airline has raised concerns that families returning from holidays face long queues to pass through immigration. It also stated that with Brexit just round the corner, more than ever, the UK needs to show that it's an easy place to travel to.

When launching Terminal 5's eGates in 2015, the Home Office said that: "Automated technology, such as eGates, give Border Force the ability to process a higher number of low risk passengers more quickly and using less resource. This reduces queue times as well as freeing Border Force officers up to focus on other priority work such as cracking down on the smuggling of dangerous goods and identiftying potential victims of trafficking."

Yet, routinely at Terminal 5 only one third of the 29 state of the art eGates are open. In addition, they are usually shut prematurely at 11pm while customers are still making their way off flights causing massive queues and frustrating delays.

Ensuring as many of the eGates as possible are in use not only means faster passage for eligible travellers but it also eases waiting times for those customers not able to use the automated gates including those travelling with children under the age of 12.

Ragbhir S Pattar, British Airways' Director of Heathrow, said: "We recognise some of the steps being taken by Border Force to improve the service they provide to travellers. However more focus must be put on operating in the most efficient and flexible way and ensuring that passengers' needs are put first.

"It is a constant frustration to us and to our customers that after a long flight they have to stand in queues, sometimes for over an hour, just to get back into the country. And it is a dreadful welcome for visitors to the UK to be faced with a packed immigration hall and the prospect of a frustrating delay to the start of their holiday or business trip. It adds insult to injury when you're stuck in a queue but can see numerous gates which just aren't being used.

"We wholeheartedly support the essential role the Border Force has to protect the UK but more must be done to prevent these unnecessary delays."

krispy84

What's the reason for not having all gates open?

Staffing ratios? Needing 1 Border Force officer for every 5 gates open for example?

markle

deleted

flatlander

BA don't even mention how the Border Farce trapped thousands of people in T5 after the BA IT meltdown, by refusing to allow them to exit the termianl quickly and easily. This made the entire situation much worse, as well as causing distress to many people. Not that the Border Force show concern for personal distress in many other situations.

I'm paying, a lot, for that border service and I expect it to be good. Making the Border Force self-funding works both ways, Home Secretary: I expect to receive good service when you make me pay directly for it.

krispy84

Thanks

That was a from the hip guess.

aidy

U think that's bad, try applying for a settlement visa for your wife, UKBA have just given up on timelines now

Alwaysfly

Having just returned with family from vacation with one child under 11 I was caught in this. egates totally empty but lines with families returning taking 30 min. When I commented on this to the officer he gave a very strong answer that government job cut backs were the issue.
I then had the misfortune to travel through Stansted coming back from Europe to feel blessed to use Heathrow T5 so often. egate queues were 20 min + with the majority of gates in use, but family line was unbelievable, can't have taken much less than an hour looking at the length of it.

ahmetdouas

Border Force Agents should work directly for the government, just like most countries, where essentially passport control agents are the equivalent of Border Police!

NWIFlyer

Err ... they do .

BF is most assuredly part of the Home Office.

ahmetdouas

Sorry what I meant is they should be actual policemen!

madfish

At T3 on Tuesday they only had 4 e-gates open around 11am. The family line was fairly lengthy and only 1 agent. As I arrived I asked the staff standing around why. They immediately called to get some extra agents to man the desk. Why did I need to mention it when they could easily have seen the queu building up.

Contrast this to DUB around 8pm when there were at least 6 EU staffed desks open. Of course, the other side of the coin is US immigration.

UKtravelbear

Border Force officers have the power of arrest in relation to immigration offiences.

They also have the power of detention in non immigration issues whilst they await the attendance of a police officer.

Most of the work of a frontline immigration officer is actually checking paperwork and you do not need policeman to do that.

NWIFlyer

You've seen just how stretched police resources are at the moment, I take it?

Introducing more duties for which they're not remotely trained doesn't exactly seem like the answer to me ...

ahmetdouas

Well however they want to do it, I find the CBP much, much more professional than Border Force.

corporate-wage-slave

This presumably is the same police force that sent 7 police officers in 3 specialist vehicles to retrieve a small Yorkshire Terrier under the Dangerous Dogs Act from an OAP in Kingston Vale earlier this week. [Dog has since been returned to its owner].