Heathrow at 'breaking' point as Border Force struggles to cope, leaked memos warnDavid Millward:
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Heathrow approached “breaking” point last week, with passengers left so frustrated by delays that they resorted to storming past officials without showing their documents and slow handclapping staff in immigration halls ...
On Saturday BAA, the owner of Heathrow, tried to defuse tensions with a leaflet apologising to passengers for the “very long delays” and saying people entering the country “deserved a warmer welcome”.
The leaflet suggested that passengers should complain to the Home Office.
However, Marc Owen, the director of UK Border Agency operations at Heathrow, told BAA the leaflet was “inappropriate”.
He threatened to “escalate” the matter with ministers who were likely to take a “very dim view” ...
He also told BAA to stop passengers taking pictures of the queues in the arrivals hall in a further attempt to stem the flow of information about the havoc ...
The difficulties were exacerbated by a series of technology glitches including the failure of a finger print machine, used to check passengers who require a visa to enter Britain.
On other occasions both the Iris recognition and new automatic passport scanning gates failed, adding to the frustration of new arrivals.
“I am unsure but I do not believe our staff are trained to use these machines,” one manager said. “If they were I could have deployed the kit much faster.”
The machinery was very slow and kept failing. Staff found it “impossible” to segregate those with visas in the crowded queueing areas ...
