U/K Passport Control

[Leekbrookgull]

Any other Nsc user had this happen to them ? On returning to the U/K on Friday, everyone was told to queue at passport control at Manchester,everyone with their own passport (expect very young) while each one was was checked and scanned. When i used the same airport in January this year,hardly anyone was stopped. Is this part of Blairs war on terror ?

 

[Djmiles]

Yup had to queue for a good 20 minutes on returning from New Zealand at Heathrow.

However everyone with a non EU passport got ushered through to a seperate section and got through within 5 minutes

 

[Horsham Gull]

Surely if you are coming back into your country of birth/or where you hold nationality is should be easier to get through passport control.

 

[Barry Izbak]

Stansted Friday at midnight. Seven queues of Brits waiting for 30 minutes.

Half a dozen foreigners in their queue. 5 minutes.

Its part of Brown's recent announcement about having a border police.

A family in front of me and my son have to be searched, when it is obvious to any fucker that they are just back from a week on the costa. Utter Bollocks.

My old man can hardly walk (70 years old) Has to take his shoelaces out on a flight from Bournemouth to Edinburgh.

Disabled English girl (one leg) in front of me flying out of Gatwick is forced to sit down ahead of the xray machine while they take her shoe off and send it and her crutches through. She was almost in tears. It was a fkg disgrace.

They have got it completely wrong but are too scared to target the people they ought to for fear of getting done by the Liberty wankers for discrimination.

 

[Beach Hut]

Always had passport checked when returning via Gatwick Airport but usually quite quick.

 

[dougdeep]

While you were away we had a new PM.

 

[Leekbrookgull]

Even at Manchester there was a plain clothes copper,with a GMP badge hanging out his jacket pocket,plus there were two on desks for non-EU nationals,when the flight was full of white Brits !!

 

[Robbie G]

Coming back from New Zealand in July, we had to queue for about 10 minutes. The people without EU passports had a massive queue, like 30/40 min wait i would say.

No problems getting in though

 

[Publius Ovidius]

about 10 minutes wait on tuesday night

 

[HampshireSeagulls]

In to the US, all males between 16 and 40 were taking for questioning - I went with my son for his questioning, and it seems that all those who have a new biometric passport are being routinely checked. The "cover" story is that a batch of passports were stolen (which is bollocks) - they are working their way through the new issues. Spoke to a couple of non-whites who were asked if they had been to Pakistan, etc. We had no problems with getting through - just want to know why you have a new passport, when you last visited, etc. One of the guys I was with has the same surname and year of birth as an IRA terrorist and always gets his passport pre-scanned on the ICIS at Gatwick the night before flying to avoid problems the other end.

Coming back, we came to LGW at the same time as a flight from Accra. They nearly all got clobbered by the HMC&E whilst us poor IPOD/PSP/Camera smugglers wandered through without being touched.

Thanks Gordon, and thanks for profiling!

 

[Springal]

had no problems arriving back from Ibiza last night? Just went through instantly and usual scanning of passport and "have a nice evening sir"

 

[cannedheat]

Think of your carbon footprints, you bad bad naughty people, I am going to camp outside your houses in protest.

 

[Screaming J]

When we came back on Eurostar 2 weeks ago, at Gare du Nord we had our passports checked by French and English officials - within 5 yards of each other - but acting completely separately.

Where is the point in that??

 

[The Clown of Pevensey Bay]

The story is that BAA and other airport owners have asked the Home Office for more immigration officers so there aren't the same number of desks for Brits as foreigners.

 

[Lady Bracknell]

I can't abide British airports! Which is why I am seriously sorry that I have to fly out of one in a couple of weeks. Many alternatives were sought but none were possible so not only do I have to cope with the irrational hysteria that is an excuse for security but my carbon footprint is now Abominable Snowman sized. If I can get my mainly metal plated footprint through the gates in the first place without all the alarm bells ringing that is!

 

[tedebear]

I hate British Airports too Roz, but worse is the lax state of UK immigration in airports, I can sense others on this thread are upset about having to wait for 10 minutes and gosh darn it having to have your passport checked, but you'd be the first people to moan if the immigration department let someone in with a British passport, who then went on to blow some of us up!!...

People just want everything...

 

[Leekbrookgull]

Moving on has just visited HM Govt Passport website. Photographs. you can wear a head covering either for medical or religious reasons,however the full face must be clear. However does that mean a muslim can wear a veil for a passport photo ? I ask because remember that WPC,shot dead in Leeds,where they reckon he got out of the U/K by wearing a veil.

 

[tedebear]

No they have to have a passport photo without a veil, and must be prepared to show their face to a female officer in a closed room at an immigration point if asked... which I think is fair enough...

 

[Lady Bracknell]

I hate British Airports too Roz, but worse is the lax state of UK immigration in airports, I can sense others on this thread are upset about having to wait for 10 minutes and gosh darn it having to have your passport checked, but you'd be the first people to moan if the immigration department let someone in with a British passport, who then went on to blow some of us up!!...

People just want everything...

I don't have a problem with security, as such, since I don't want to be blown to smithereens either but I still question how well it is done at British airports since it strikes me that there's more style than substance to some of it.

As for immigration, nowadays I suspect we are at just as much risk from "home-grown" terrorists who have absolutely no need to fly in or out of Britain. Either that or they arrive by far less detectable modes of transport.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

The best frontier experience I have had (with the possible exception of being invited to get out of the car and wipe my feet before entering the Republic of Ireland) was crossing from France to Belgium a few years back when touring with a band.

In order to avoid having to pay import duty on some of the instruments and equipment when returning to the UK, we needed to get the paperwork for everything stamped at every border we crossed. Entering Belgium in the middle of a small border village, we had to go and find the frontiersman (is that the word?) who was sitting in a bar, having a quiet lunchtime drink. He came back to his office at the border, lowered the previously open barrier and set about stamping pages and pages of documentation. I stood outside the office, opening and closing the barrier for the few cars, bikes and pedestrians who wanted to cross.

"Bienvenue en Belgique"