UK Immigration: Queues still long

I think we all remember (with a shuder) the waiting time that London Heathrow and other UK ports of entry suffered earlier this year.

Well it seem that Heathrow entry is slowly heading towards the magical 45 minutes for those who are non-EU residents. Although some have witnessed longer queues than that.

And of course the politicians are arguing. as usual.

Queues at London Heathrow T4 have been a subject of debate, with one minister (Transport Minster Damien Green) visiting on Tuesday 10th July to find queues of “under an hour”. However, another minister – Keith Vaz observed “appalling” queues at T4 with half of non-EU resident entry desks closed the day before.

Heathrow itself is due to go into Olympic mode from Sunday 15th, with the major influx of athletes expected to arrive on Monday 16th, 500 extra staff pulled from the UK Border service to Heathrow, and the aim to have passport control desks  all manned at peak times.

However, it seems that all is not well on the border with signs of disorder from the visiting public, and the threat of staff abuse, jeering, slow handclapping of staff. For UK Border, it will be a massive task to turn the people around and process them in a hurry.

The major worry if this really kicks off in style, there could be the threat of people storming the UK Border. Whilst it hasn’t happened, it is a threat if the waiting public are either too impatient or too drunk.

Daimen Green states that the queues in April and May were “bad”, “the idea that there are endless long queues day after day would be misleading now”.

Daimen Green also stated

“Forty five minutes is acceptable,”

“It has got better through May and June, but it is still not perfect.”

If you’re coming to the United Kingdom after the Olympics, don’t expect all desks to be open at peak times sadly. Whilst extra staff are being brought on for the September student rush, they won’t be enough still for full peak-time manning.

Mr Green also wishes to introduce separated lanes for  countries that require intensive pre-boarding checks, such as the US, Japan, New Zealand and Australia. This of course would cost money and extra staff.

Whilst border security in any country is important, it is equally important to process people quickly and efficiently – and having the joke that is the current UK Border Force isn’t cutting it by a long shot.

In real terms, a complete shake-up of the whole UK Border system needs to be looked at – but with the fiscal constraints that exist, I wouldn’t expect that – for many years sadly.