The government will bring forward the recruitment of 70 border staff to prevent lengthy queues at Heathrow in the aftermath of the London 2012 Olympic Games, immigration minister Damian Green revealed yesterday.
He told a Commons Home Affairs Committee, that the posts had due to start when a revamped Terminal 2 reopens in 2014, but instead they will be in place before the start of the new academic year, when tens of thousands of foreign students will fly to the UK.
UK Border Force will have an extra 480 guards on duty during the Olympics, said Green, but numbers will be reduced again immediately after the Games.
At the same time, he revealed that 16 mobile teams of 10 people were now employed at Heathrow to try to prevent queues building up at peak periods. There have been reports of some non-EU arrivals being forced to wait more than two hours to clear immigration in recent weeks.
The Committee’s chairman, Labour MP Keith Vaz, criticised the level of queues at Heathrow and at Stansted, claiming that at one time they stretched all the way back to the aircraft.
Passengers are even taking up to 50 minutes to get through fast-track lanes, the Committee – which is scrutinizing the role of Border Force – was told.
BAA chief executive Colin Matthews, British Airways operations director Andrew Lord and Virgin Atlantic director of operations Corneel Koster told the Committee the delays had been going on for two years and were steadily getting worse. They disputed Green’s claim it was due to the airlines not telling Border Force how many passengers to expect.
By Linsey McNeill
