| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
‘UK plans wealth-based border control’
British immigration minister Damian Green has proposed a two-tier border control system where visitors from European countries as well as the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan can have their passports checked faster and separately from other travelers.
Green claimed the system aims to fix the passport check delays at Heathrow through speeding passengers from trusted countries through airport controls.
“The idea of differentiating people so that those who don't need visas, and therefore already we feel more confident about them than those who we do require visas from, to have them in separate lanes in the airport is something worthy of looking at,” Green told the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee.
However, the chief executive of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants Habib Rahman said the move is a discriminatory policy in favor of the rich that is based on no established facts.
“There is no evidence to suggest visitors from other countries are less trustworthy than visitors from these countries,” Rahman said.
“This is a list of wealthy countries with links to the UK. It is based on wealth and trade links and it discriminates against people from the developing world, parts of which we have very strong links with and aspire to foster better relations,” he added.
Heathrow has been plagued with major delays ahead of the Olympics and the government is under mounting pressure to tackle the problem.
Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee Keith Vaz said after visiting the airport’s Terminal 4 on Monday that people were left “stacked” before passport check booths for incoming flights from Asia and the United States at 7 am describing the queues as “appalling.”
Vaz also called on the UK Border Force that is in charge of the immigration booths to explain the delays.
Read more at Ms No World Order
Source:
