Green’s pledge on Heathrow queues

Damian Green made his pledge in response to an urgent question by a Labour MP in the House of Commons, who said long queues at Heathrow airport’s passport control are a “serious embarrassment” to the country.

Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, said Mr Green had to relax controls in certain cases, or more people needed to be employed at immigration desks, to prevent the two-hour queues that some passengers have had to face.

Mr Green said: “Border Force will ensure that all immigration desks at Heathrow and other key ports and airports in the south east are fully staffed during peak periods over the summer. A contingency force of appropriately trained staff will be sent to the border to provide extra help to ensure passengers are processed as quickly as possible.”

He added that the vast number of people pass through immigration “very quickly”.

However a BAA spokesperson said that immigration waiting times at Heathrow recently were “unacceptable”.

“We have called on the Home Office to address the problem as a matter of urgency. There isn’t a trade-off between strong border security and a good passenger experience – the Home Office should be delivering both,” said a spokeswomen.

The UK Border Agency (UKBA) tried to gag Heathrow airport operator, BAA, from handing out letters of apology to passengers waiting in long queues at passport control. In emails shown to the Daily Telegraph, Marc Owen, UKBA director said that the letters were “inflammatory and likely to increase tensions in arrivals halls”. He said the letters were “inappropriate” and that BAA should prevent passengers from posting pictures of queues on Twitter.

Downing Street’s official spokesman said earlier in the day that “severe weather conditions” were in part to blame for the disruption over recent days.

Delays ‘don’t stop at Heathrow’

While Heathrow has been the subject of recent scrutiny, long delays do not stop there, an Easyjet spokeswomen told Channel 4 News.

“We’re very concerned at how things are at present,” she added. “We’ve had issues at Gatwick, Stansted and Luton with long immigration queues. Our concern would be that we’re not in the summer peak of travelling, and the government needs to act now before the summer holidays and the Olympics add further pressure to travelling.”

A few passengers were shouting that they were on really long flights and just wanted to go through the line. By then you’re just a bit knackered and want to get home. Heathrow passenger

The Public and Commercial Service Union (PCS) said that job losses were to blame for disruption and queues at immigration desks. The government is aiming to cut border force officers from the 2010 level of 8,874, to 7,322 by 2015. Following a significant number of voluntary redundancies over the last six months, the rostering system has changed, and staff are now forced to work eight days in a row.

“Our members are constantly approaching the union and telling us about how they have to face irate passengers,” Nur Alam, vice-chair of PCS west London branch (including Heathrow) told Channel 4 News. “They’re not in the position to alleviate the situation – they’re on the front line and having to cope with fewer resources.”

A Border Force spokesman said effective border security is not about absolute staff numbers, but about better management. “Our staff are deployed flexibly based on airline passenger number predictions and arrival schedules,” he added.

‘You’re just a bit knackered’

One passenger who travelled from Frankfurt to Heathrow last Thursday evening told Channel 4 News that she had to queue for 50 minutes at passport control after her flight was delayed by an hour and a half because of bad weather.

“There was probably three or four plane-loads of people. As we joined the queue, another four planes landed – you could see their faces dropping as they entered the hall,” she said.

BAA staff made sure there was no queue jumping and directed passengers into queues.

“A few passengers were shouting that they were on really long flights and just wanted to go through the line,” she said. “At that time of night it’s normally business flyers – by then you’re just a bit knackered and want to get home. I spoke to someone who was driving up to Birmingham that night.”