By Travelmail Reporter
|
The Government's passport-checking policy has come under fire after an Olympic official complained that he had to queue for three hours to pass through immigration checks at Heathrow Airport.
Heathrow's owner BAA confirmed that a senior Olympic official made a complaint last Tuesday and said that some passengers had queued for 2.5 hours, but both the Home Office and BAA declined to name the official concerned.
Writing in The Times, Brodie Clark, the former head of the UK Border Force, said full passport checks introduced by the Home Secretary last autumn were to blame for lengthy delays at London's major airports and were undermining security.
Long delays: Heathrow's owner BAA confirmed that some passengers had queued for 2.5 hours to pass through immigration checks last week
Speaking for the first time since he resigned from his job last November, Mr Clark said that frontline immigration staff were becoming little more than âbox-tickers and rules followersâ as a result of the policy.
Mr Clark described Home Secretary Theresa May's decision to suspend risk-based border controls as a âkneejerk reactionâ and said it would be reinstated.
He wrote: âThe early journey we took into a more risk-based approach to checking passengers arriving in Britain has been shelved.
âInstead, we are back to the laborious and less effective policy of checking every passenger to a similar level, regardless of whether a particular individual is ever likely to pose a threat.
Criticism: Former head of UK Border Agency Brodie Clark said frontline immigration staff were becoming little more than 'box-tickers and rules followers'
He told The Times it was pointless to check children and war veterans who would pose a low risk to security and claimed that the pressures of long queues reduced the effectiveness of border staff and could lead to mistakes.
Mr Clark, who received compensation after settling a constructive dismissal case against the Home Office, said immigration staff were being moved away from 'vital security work' and instead doing 'low-value, low return passenger checking'.
In the firing line: Mr Clark described Home Secretary Theresa May's decision to suspend risk-based border controls as a 'kneejerk reaction'
Mr Clark called on a three-pronged approach to be taken to patrolling Britain's borders that focused on the use of technology, the effective use of frontline staff and an approach based on risk.
As many as 600,000 people are expected to arrive at Heathrow around the time of the Games, which run from July 27 to August 13, causing further chaos and longer queues.
BAA, which owns Heathrow, said immigration does not have enough staff to carry out the checks following the reintroduction of tougher checks.
The Government plans to cut the number of border officer staff from 8,874 in March 2010 to 7,322 by March 2015.
But unions have been told extra staff will be drafted in to ease pressure during the Olympics and will include people from the Home Office and HM Revenue Customs, some of which have retired.
Pressure: As many as 600,000 people are expected to arrive at Heathrow around the time of the Games, causing further chaos and longer queues
Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, said the problem of border controls would be raised with the Home Secretary when she appears before them tomorrow.
Mr Vaz added that passengers had contacted him complaining of long queues at Heathrow and that some passport control desks had been left unmanned.
Senior MPs revealed earlier this month that passengers could be 'left on runways' as airports struggle to cope during the Olympic Games.
In a leaked letter to Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, the MPs claim cuts to UK Border Agency staff and poor contingency plans could be a recipe for disaster during the London 2012 Games.
They said that planes could be forced to circle the airport and tourists made to queue at passport control for several hours.
- Stunning black and white pictures of a nation's rural ruins,...
- Too much Botox? Carla Bruni is 'barely recognisable as the...
- Following in Prince Harry's footsteps, Princess Beatrice...
- 'They could easily have killed': The two young men held for...
- 'I used a spy camera to catch a care home thug beating up my...
- We're going to need more candles! Oldest man in the world...
- 100,000 women undergo brutal genital mutilation illegally in...
- Actors in film about fleeing Cuba arrive in U.S. for film...
- When Victoria met Albert: Tender letter reveals how Queen...
- A VERY Big Mac! World's biggest McDonald's with 1,500 seats...
- Charity donations rocket to £35,000 for hairdresser, 30, who...
- From idyllic New England towns to rugged West Coast...
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar