To keep immigration lines moving, Britain’s Border Force has reportedly been ordered to “deprioritise” searches for guns and drugs entering the country.
A leaked email sent earlier this month to Border Force officials stationed at Manchester Airport reportedly ordered staff to “deprioritise” routine searches for contraband, such as drugs, illegal firearms, or other offensive weapons, in order to avoid delays for those attempting to enter the country.
It is the latest in a series of controversies that have dogged the government agency in recent years, with many accusing it of being dysfunctional due to its handling of both legal and illegal immigration processes.
According to The Guardian, the embattled organisation was put under intense pressure to avoid delays during the February school holidays, with one official even writing to employees to tell them to focus all of their efforts on manning passport checks at the airport.
The assistant director of Border Force North, Phil Boyle, told staff that passport stations would be manned “when required to prevent excessive queues,” and that other operations, such as important customs checks, would be delayed or abandoned to ensure immigration continued to flow.
“Customs work is deprioritised and will only be carried out when you are satisfied there is no likelihood of an excessive queue time or in the event of a cat A target,” the leaked email from Boyle reads, with a “cat A target” reportedly being a check prompted by rare intelligence provided by other UK security officials.
The UK Border Force has also been struggling with passport control, with recent strike action exposing major flaws within the agency.
After declaring a strike late last year, the UK government deployed the army to airports to check the passports of those arriving in the country, which many feared would cause significant delays. However, reports indicate that with the British Army in charge, airport queues moved much faster than usual, raising concerns about the Border Force’s current competence.