The Times - UK (2021-11-11)

10 2GM Thursday November 11 2021 | the times

News

E-passport gates failed nationwide yes-
terday, causing chaos at the border for
the third time in just over two months.
Arrivals at Heathrow had to queue
for up to two hours after a “technical
issue” caused the system to collapse.
The gates are used to process the vast
majority of British and European arriv-
als and can also process arrivals from
the US, Canada, Australia and Japan.
One Heathrow employee, who asked
not to be named, said that the failures
were becoming frustratingly common.
“I came on to shift and they were work-

Patel anger as convicts are

taken off deportation flight

Matt Dathan Home Affairs Editor

A murderer, a kidnapper and several

paedophiles were removed from a de-

portation flight to Jamaica yesterday

after last-minute legal appeals.

Priti Patel, the home secretary, said

that it was “absolutely galling” that all

but four of 37 criminals and visa over-

stayers were taken off the flight.

The Home Office has now spent tens

of thousands of pounds deporting just

those four from Birmingham to Kings-

ton. Human rights laws and modern

slavery claims were used to prevent the

vast majority boarding.

The Home Office said that it only re-

ceived legal challenges on behalf of 13

in the final 24 hours. In total, legal

claims prevented 33 foreign offenders

and people without a right to remain in

the UK being removed. Lawyers and

campaigners warned that at least four

who were due to be on the flight had

come to the UK before the age of 12.

One, a father of four who was convicted

of actual bodily harm, came to the UK

aged just three months. He avoided de-

portation by swallowing razor blades on

the day he was due to be removed.

Last night Patel said that the laws she

was pushing through parliament would

restrict last-minute legal challenges.

The Home Office has confirmed that

695 migrants crossed the Channel

yesterday, while another 255 were in-

tercepted by the French.

More than 1,200 have crossed the

Channel in the past two days alone,

taking the total number to have arrived

in the UK this year to more than

22,000, nearly triple last year’s tally.

BEN CLATWORTHY

E-passport gates fail for third time in weeks

ing,” she said. “Then they just failed and

all we’ve been told is there is a technical

issue. It’s becoming a real issue.”

Passengers must be manually proc-

essed when e-gates fail but a lack of offi-

cers to staff desks causes huge delays.

There are 25 e-gates at Heathrow

Terminal 5, each capable of processing a

passenger every 45 seconds. Yesterday

morning, at the height of the break-

down, there were six officers processing

arrivals manually. Delays were also re-

ported at Stansted and Luton. The

Home Office apologised for the failure.

Edward Grint, an opera singer, was

stuck at Stansted and said: “Stansted or

Standstill? Landed nearly an hour ago.

Looks like it’s going to be well over two

hours waiting for someone to check my

forms.”

A senior aviation source branded the

situation a farce and said the Home

Office needs to get its “house in order”.

He said: “It is becoming a joke. There are

failures every five minutes and each

time the government hides behind the

excuse of ‘technical issues’. If it were a

one-off we’d be more forgiving.”

A border officer processing manual

arrivals said: “It’s happened a few times

this year. It’s very irritating as the hall

would be half-empty if they were work-

ing. It’s the joys of technology.” He said

he did not know whether the glitch was

caused by Border Crossing, the Home

Office’s new £372 million security

system. It has suffered repeated break-

downs since being rushed into use at the

end of June. The Commons public ac-

counts committee examined it in

March and said that the Home Office

had “no proof that systems can cope

with passenger volumes that existed pri-

or to Covid”. The MPs also criticised the

“staggering” cost.

There are more than 270 e-gates

across 15 air and rail ports in Britain.

Passengers at Heathrow who had ar-

rived on “red-eye” overnight flights

from the US, South Africa, Canada and

Kenya voiced their anger at the delay.

“What is it about the UK?” a passenger

from New York said. “Nothing works.”

Clive Wratten, head of the Business

Travel Association, was in the queues.

He said: “Such a disappointing way to

greet returning nationals and valuable

guests from all around the world.”

The problems follow a summer of dis-

ruption, as well as breakdowns in Sep-

tember and last month. Passengers re-

turning after the lockdown faced

queues of up to six hours at Heathrow

because of a lack of immigration offi-

cers. E-gates were also closed for weeks

after foreign leisure travel resumed in

May because they were unable to recog-

nise passenger locator forms.

Ben Clatworthy
Transport Correspondent

There were queues of up to two hours at Heathrow and delays at other airports

First person

W

elcome to

Global

Britain

(Ben

Clatworthy writes).

Arriving at Heathrow

Terminal 5, I was

greeted with a now all

too familiar sight: a

row of 25 e-gates, all

with red Xs indicating

their closure. Staff

looked on at the

situation resigned,

while passengers who

had disembarked

red-eye flights

muttered about the

chaos. If this were an

isolated issue, it

would be unfortunate

but forgivable. But it

is not. Border Force

staff complain of

continual breakdowns

and airport bosses get

flak for a situation

that is beyond their

control. The border is

the responsibility of

the Home Office. It is

introducing software

for e-gates as part of

its “Border 2025

strategy”, which it is

hoped will make the

“UK border the most

effective in the world”.

It has some way to go.

The queues yesterday

were worse than

many I’ve seen in the

US, where the

immigration process

is notoriously fraught.

The Home Office

needs to get a grip on

the problems fast. The

coming months are

vital for the

bounceback of

international travel --

it cannot be

hampered by repeated

IT meltdowns that

make Britain look

incompetent.