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7 hour wait at LHR!
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Disgraceful....Aren't the automatic gates working these days ? As all these incoming passengers will have a legitimate and therefore legal right to enter the UK, the requisite number of border control agents should have been on duty to cope with the known number of passengers arriving. AFAIK the track/trace/Quarantine Hotel personnel are not border staff, so they would be after immigration.
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Originally Posted by SpringHeeledJack
(Post 11000444)
Disgraceful....Aren't the automatic gates working these days ? As all these incoming passengers will have a legitimate and therefore legal right to enter the UK, the requisite number of border control agents should have been on duty to cope with the known number of passengers arriving. AFAIK the track/trace/Quarantine Hotel personnel are not border staff, so they would be after immigration.
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think they're locked shut - once again "welcome to the UK" - its been a joke for years
They know how many people are coming and they never have enough staff to handle them in a reasonable time - like 10 minutes at Changi................. |
Making some assumptions...
100 arriving international passenger flights per day. 60 at T2. 60 pax per aircraft. 3600 pax per day or 300 per hour averaged throughout the day. With 4 border guards on duty I can see how delays would build at peak times but 7 hours doesn’t seem right. |
Originally Posted by Del Prado
(Post 11000551)
Making some assumptions...
100 arriving international passenger flights per day. 60 at T2. 60 pax per aircraft. 3600 pax per day or 300 per hour averaged throughout the day. With 4 border guards on duty I can see how delays would build at peak times but 7 hours doesn’t seem right. Border Farce operating at it best. |
This from the BBC article:
A worker in the immigration department at Heathrow, who asked not to be named, said the situation was chaotic. "It's a mess. We cannot deploy without breaching health and safety measures. We are short staffed anyway. What are you meant to do?" Lucy Moreton, general secretary of ISU, the union for Borders and Immigration, said the queues were caused by Covid restrictions imposed by Border Force, which is part of the Home Office. She said that staff have been put into bubbles of 10 people to reduce the risk of cross infection, but that this prevents more staff being deployed when the border becomes busy. "Staff are very upset about the measure," said Ms Moreton. "They have been receiving verbal abuse as the queues have got longer. "The measure is not necessary, it contributes to the queues and it doesn't stop infection as staff have to interact outside those bubbles in other areas of the site," she said. The Home Office called these comments "disingenuous" and said that the ISU had previously acknowledged that zonal working provides benefits to health and safety. The ISU disputes this, saying it had never said that the measure has any benefits. It said the measure adds nothing material to Covid security for staff, but impairs their ability to respond to demand. |
Originally Posted by PAXboy
(Post 11000611)
This from the BBC article:
I have met the ISU Gen Sec a couple of times - I believe her rather than their overlords. Not least as, over the past decade, we have seen under staffing in normal times. It is my personal view that the Govt has deliberately under staffed to save money for a long time. At the start of all this when HMG didn't appear to be taking things particularly seriously they made it clear that in the first instance it was the airlines' responsibility to ensure all passengers were equipped with the correct paperwork for travel, such as PLFs, and only a few got picked out on arrival by Border for spot checks. Suddenly it did get serious and now it's (as I understand it) a 100% check of paperwork by actual officials. I wonder how many extra personnel "Border" have recruited to cover the increased workload? |
Assuming all the 'paperwork' is now pre-filled electronic documentation, with the onus of steep fines if incorrectly/fraudulently filled out by passengers ,and knowing exactly who was on each flight between a few hours to a few days beforehand, and having more than enough staff to cover all the arrivals into LHR (because the passenger volumes are way down) and the main cadre of Border staff are furloughed, but ready to start at relatively short notice, how could there be so few staff ready to process the arrivals ?
Might it be a deliberate strategy to further dissuade arriving passengers attempting the journey now the UK is serious about controlling it's borders ? Self-financed quarantine hotels, self-financed covid tests x2 and now ominous waits after perhaps travelling for 12hrs plus. It just seems either incredibly cackhanded, or a planned obstruction to broadcast 'stay away' at this time. |
"how could there be so few staff ready to process the arrivals ?"
Ask Pritti Patel........................... tho she's probably grandstanding on the beach at Dover trying to stop the annual 500 illegal immigrants a year rather than fix the problems with over 10,000 honest (-ish) folk a day at LHR |
My personal guess about these dealys are that they might be linked to the arrival of the 'P1' variant of Sars-CoV2 in to the UK. It transpires that two people did not complete their docuements and were not fully checked on arrival. They are now: BBC:
The search for an individual infected with the Covid variant first found in Brazil has narrowed to 379 households in south-east England, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said. |
As far as I understand it there's never been any suggestion so far by the authorities the manhunt now narrowed down to 379 households has anything all to with failures at the UK border or by Border officials.
The story seems to be that a test delivered to a home in the UK, possibly for somebody isolating or possibly as part of random surge testing in the area, was returned to the lab with that return paperwork incomplete. But it hasn't half been jumped on by the "close our Borders" mob. |
Thanks for the correction on the new variant.
Re-reading, I see that my post could have been read to support closed borders. Actually, I am just amused that they have failed in their task. For decades, the rest of Europe has checked people In and Out but the Brits merely In. But, if you do not know who has left officially, you cannot know who has remained. Yet, so many people in this country (and the politicians) are very upset at the number of people who overstay their Visa - but they do not know who they all are! Further, I suggest, the knowledge that, once you get in, it is more difficult to be found because they do not know when you leave, has attracted some people to the UK Whilst they may have pax lists from carriers and shipping companies, this is all second hand. So, I do not mind that they do not check departures, but they have not done what they said they would. Which seems to be the way of so many modern politicians. |
We're in agreement on pretty much all of that...
Whilst they may have pax lists from carriers and shipping companies, this is all second hand. So, I do not mind that they do not check departures, but they have not done what they said they would. Which seems to be the way of so many modern politicians. It was pretty obvious to me early in the Covid outbreak that the government would put responsibility and costs for checking paperwork/tests onto the private sector (specifically the operators, and most specifically check in and gate staff) ...they weren't gong to spend an extra penny if they could help it on providing extra Border Force staff to check passengers inbound and/or outbound. |
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They should hand out Pritti's mobile number
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As if the UK is the only place you have to queue up for multiple hours to go through customs.
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Almost two decades ago I had many hours of delay to get through US immigration twice on successive trips. I have not returned since. If a country thinks so little of my wellbeing and time then they don't deserve my tourist dollars. I have happily visited many many other corners of the world since with no memorable problems until an unacceptable delay travelling through Heathrow last year. Sadly I can't avoid UK immigration, but I'm sure there are many in the world who can and will.
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It looks like the strong reaction is generated by:
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Originally Posted by Planet Basher
(Post 11005957)
As if the UK is the only place you have to queue up for multiple hours to go through customs.
FWIW on a pedantic point these queues aren't at customs, they are at immigration/Border Control and even in current circumstances many other large countries/other major airports are managing to monitor/police entry entry without routinely generating multiple hour delays |
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