10 signatures reached
To: UK Government
End our airport disgrace
The United Kingdom needs radically to improve the reception for foreign visitors and returning Brits by making the airport immigration/border control checks AND security checks fast, friendly and efficient, befitting of a modern, developed democracy. The UK Government needs to invest more money and resources in border control and security checks at airports. The staff running these services need better training.
Why is this important?
This matters greatly because every day we are giving a terrible impression of our country to incoming business people, tourists and other visitors by the shocking inefficiency of our airport checks and controls. Often they are staffed by illiterate and surly staff. One short example: on Sunday 18 May at 0700, there were enormous queues at Heathrow Terminal 5 as hundreds of people queued at border control after disembarking from incoming flights. There were not enough staff at the individual inspection booths. Even people on 'Fast Track' were made to queue beyond any reasonable duration. People were shouting at security (Mitie) and Border Agency staff and those staff in turn were rude or dismissive. The security staff were patently ill-trained to cope with the situation. Those being made to go through security and scanning again (despite just coming off flights) were subjected to another huge queue and lengthy wait. The majority of bags were being checked for explosives. One Muslim woman on her way to Bahrain was in tears having just received bad news from home: she was ignored by security staff. A businessman from South Africa said he would never, ever again fly via Heathrow. When politely challenged, the man wearing the "Supervisor" vest was also dismissive and said if there were fewer retail outlets, there'd be more room for security controls. What a terrible impression of the UK. What are we thinking of?
