Border staff stop and search white air passengers to 'even up racial mix'

Report finds white passengers are searched to balance out other ethnicities

Details exposed in report by chief inspector of UK Border Agency

Watchdog report: Heathrow Terminal 3 staff numbers fell by 15% in one year



Rota changes meant some staff were off duty during peak hours in arrivals



White air passengers are routinely stopped and searched by customs officials simply to ensure the right racial ‘mix’ of travellers are being approached, a report reveals today.



It found staff searching for illegal goods at Gatwick Airport selected white passengers to balance the numbers against black and other ethnic minorities they suspected to help avoid race discrimination complaints.



Details of the practice are exposed in one of two highly critical reports by John Vine, chief inspector of the UK Border Agency, who said it was unlawful and must stop.

Checks: White air passengers are routinely stopped and searched by customs officials simply to ensure the right racial 'mix' of travellers at Gatwick Airport (pictured)

The second, criticising Heathrow Terminal 3, raised concerns about queues at the borders and found staff were allowed to clock off at some of the busiest times, resulting in long delays for passengers.



Targets for queuing times for passengers from outside the European Economic Area were breached 62 times between September 18 and 30 last year.



ROTA CHANGES AND LOW STAFF NUMBERS CONTRIBUTES TO CHAOS AT PASSPORT CONTROL

A watchdog report has revealed that rota changes and staff numbers could both be key factors in the recent chaos at passport control.

Alterations in the rota mean that staff are clocking off at the start of busy periods, leaving on duty border officers to deal with the deluge of passengers.



It also found that staff numbers at Heathrow Terminal 3 fell by 15 per cent in a year.

Low levels of staffing could also be a contributing factor to the fiasco has become increasingly embarrassing in the run-up to the Olympics, prompting fears that Britain will become a laughing stock as half-a-million spectators arrive here from around the world. The rota revelations will no doubt incense passengers who have spent hours waiting to clear the checks - last week it was revealed that passengers were storming past border guards at Britain's airports in frustration at lengthy queues at passport control.



The longest wait was two hours and 15 minutes.

The racial scanning, seemingly widespread at Gatwick, involved pulling out white passengers when officials wanted to question a black passenger.



One official told inspectors he and his colleagues ‘specifically detained a number of white passengers’ from one flight so they could ‘show that white people were also being questioned’.



He said that when they saw arrivals they ‘knew they had a problem’ because the person they wanted to intercept was the only black passenger on the flight.



The inspectors added: ‘The officer also reported that this practice ... is also used for Caribbean flights to reduce the potential for future race claims.’

Mr Vine said the approach was ‘not justifiable’ and that there was ‘no legal basis for detaining people for such purpose’.



At Heathrow Terminal 3, inspectors found two-thirds of passenger searches were ‘neither justified nor proportionate or in line with legislation and agency guidance’.



The reports reveal a number of other areas where the border controls at Britain’s two biggest airports are failing.

At Heathrow Terminal 3, they raised questions over immigration controls, with the number of people refused entry by border staff falling by 20 per cent from 2009/10 to last year.



The numbers kicked out of the country after being blocked at the terminal border fell by one third.



Mr Vine questioned whether the UK Border Agency was still able to maintain ‘an effective and efficient border control’.



At Gatwick’s North Terminal, inspectors found passengers arriving from outside the EU were routinely allowed to enter through the ‘nothing to declare’ channel with too much alcohol and up to three times the legal amount of cigarettes.



Staggeringly, customs officers waved through passengers found with cannabis in their luggage, instead of arresting them.



The report said they had failed to follow ‘appropriate procedures’ and the passengers should have been arrested.



Inspectors reported ‘an almost total lack of visible detection presence’ in customs for ‘large parts of the day’.



And too many suspected illegal migrants were being allowed through, including cases where attempted deception and breaches of immigration rules were clear, it found.

