'This is immigration not a nightclub queue' blog discussion

IanWorthington

I've seen what they do in the US. I was with a few hundred people stuck in a go-slow immigration queue with insufficient staff and, of course, this being the US, no air-side transfer (Hello guys? Duh!). After a few hours people are starting to miss their flights. One woman dares to complain, and receives a faceful of abuse from the airline customer service agent and an immediate visit from a group of very aggressive cops.

I would be very worried if the excuse of "Global Terrorism" led our airport staff to start behaving in this same way, even to vacuous airheads.

IanWorthington

peter999 wrote: »

I returned through Stansted last week around midnight & the queue was quite long.

Since when have the queues started being so long ??

Is it since the passport officers got new uniforms & faff about with the passports a bit more ??

I don't like everyone being treated as a suspect or terrorist under the excuse of "terrorism".

peter999

Had the same experience there a few months ago and asked the immigration agent what was going on. Apparently its bau for that time of day there -- there's too many flights arriving at the same time for the number of agents on duty.

(Seemed to me there was an obvious solution to that, but she was being nice so didn't seem approriate to speak my mind...)

newsgroup_monkey

I have 2 things to add to this.....

Firstly, the thing about queuing for passport control, surely this is why we all have "Digital" passports - my latest one has a chip in and all sorts. Surely it's supposed to make things easier?

Secondly, I am (ashamedly) flying from London Luton to Charles De Gaulle weekly at the moment. When queuing for passport control, it never ceases to amaze me the people who really don't know how to queue. Particularly people who think that because I have a pair of headphones on that they can simply walk past me. Just because I care to spend the 3 hours a week I spend in this queue listening to something I enjoy doesn't mean I'm stupid.

On a subnote, the French actually have it right: The 2 queues not only have Writing in French and English for the queues, they also have pretty pictures so that those who are Polish or Chinese (for example) know which queue to be in. In the UK, we seem to have it wrong. In London Luton, for some reason, we don't have any pictures of flags. Only wording. In English!

Horace

They have the right idea in Australia - if you haven't got the correct visa, you are sent back from whence you came on the next available flight. You cannot take in more than $AUS 10,000 otherwise you'll have the federal police jumping all over you. You cannot take in food, seeds, leaves - all of this is destroyed. If you are a criminal or look dodgy you are singled out for special treatment, if you fail to fill in the immigration card (the thing they give you on the plane) then you can also be subject to special treatment - strip searches etc or even sent home.

They should do that here and stop allowing the health tourists etc from coming in. If we stop giving them free benefit handouts (I am English and have been working for 27 years but now my circumstances have changed and I need benefits I can't get them) and free healthcare then we may reduce immigration. Make them apply for visas and if they expire boot them out!