Originally Posted by
davidjohnson6
If someone flies with fake documentation or dubious luggage from Venezuela to Tenerife, and straight onto London a few hours later, they are stupid and will be caught.
Those who want to fly the route and are doing properly naughty stuff will likely cover their tracks a little better - at which point you do need people who are not just going to compare a photo on a chip with the person standing next to them.
Even profiling at immigration doesn't always work. I've been immensely relieved sometimes when entering other countries to be rubber stamped due to having an apparently low risk automated profile, when I know a more thorough look at my passport stamps would have picked up some quite concerning or unusual info. Inquisitive, suspicious, and highly assertive immigration staff are necessary... and those that have made the effort have (rightfully) chosen to ask me more probing questions. People in uniform who rubber stamp blindly are not sufficient.
Part of the problem here is that people are assuming the soldiers are not checking. I don’t think that’s the case. While they might not know, the office checking us did call for a supervisor and asked questions to confirm he was correct.
There is an assumption here that a slow system with queues is performing checks. While the reality perhaps is that the slow system is because there is only one desk open while during the strike all the desks are open hence moving much faster. The level of scrutiny is likely similar although the soldier was at least polite unlike most BF staff I’ve encountered.
There have been multiple occasions when I’ve arrived (especially during coronavirus) when BF officials have incorrectly claimed things and I’ve needed to argue and defend my position. For example, those who traveled weekly for work were exempt from the travel bans and testing/quarantine restrictions early on during the pandemic. BF officials on multiple instances told me I needed to isolate etc when I didn’t and I then had to spend time waiting for the officer in charge to correct them and explain I had actually followed the law and was correct. So we also shouldn’t just assume that BF staff correctly interpret rules and regulations without error.