Arrived into BHX yesterday afternoon and the e-gates weren't working. I mentioned this to the passport officer and she said that they just hadn't been switched on. Unbelievable!!!
Spoke to the human border agency staff member I was forced to interact with on arrival at BHX about this a few weeks ago... Apparently they only switch on the egates at busy times...
What with the long term outright disinterest in keeping IRIS working (understandable now it's being discontinued, but not so understandable throughout a lot of late last year when it was outof service) and the huge queues that build up at times, I've always regarded the border control agency as probably the worst aspect of travelling through BHX.
Coupled with the often atrocious baggage delivery time performance in the arrivals hall - if you actually get there without any other delays what with the handling agents often not beng ready with the jetways on arival and the sometimes long queues at immigration - and then finding Customs regularly roping off the blue channel (why? I don't dare ask)even though there are EU flights arriving, I've tended to regard arrival at BHX as a less pleasant experience than many other airports.
And it doesn't really matter who is to blame - airport, handling agents, border control, customs - the net result and impression left after the event is that BHX doesn't always work particularly well on arrival