UK Border Force Told to ‘Deprioritise’ Gun and Drug Searches to Keep Lines Flowing: Report

A UK border sign welcomes passengers on arrival at Heathrow airport in west London on Dece
BEN FATHERS/AFP via Getty Images
Peter Caddle

Britain’s Border Force has reportedly been ordered to “deprioritise” searches for guns and drugs entering the UK in order to keep immigration lines flowing.

A leaked email sent to Border Force officials stationed at Manchester Airport earlier this month reportedly ordered staff to “deprioritise” routine searches for contraband, such as drugs, illegal firearms, or other offensive weapons in order to prevent delays for those looking to enter Britain.

It is the latest in a long line of controversies that have plagued the government agency in recent years, with many attacking the force as dysfunctional over its poor handling of both legal and illegal immigration processes.

According to a report by The Guardian, the embattled organisation was put under significant pressure to prevent delays during the February school holidays, with one official even writing to staff to tell them to focus all of their efforts on manning passport checks in the airport.

Phil Boyle, the assistant director of Border Force North, told staff that they were to man passport stations “when required to prevent excessive queues”, and that other operations, including important customs checks, should 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.

In response to the email, the UK’s Home Office has claimed that the Border Force is operating as usual and that the leaked document had actually been taken out of context. It remains to be seen how convincing those in Britain will find this excuse, with the force having jumped from scandal to scandal over the last number of years.

The agency has been put under major scrutiny from political pundits, for example, over its handling of the ongoing Channel Migrant Crisis, with many accusing the force of operating a glorified taxi service for illegals looking to enter Britain.

Such an opinion has not been helped by statements made by senior officials within the organisation, with one outgoing head of the agency complaining about “bloody borders” during his retirement speech in 2021, saying that enforcing them was a “pain in the bloody ass”.

“We’re all human beings, we’re all mammals, we’re all rocks, plants, rivers,” the official reportedly said in his speech.

The UK Border Force has not exactly been handling its passport control job well either, with recent strike action exposing major shortcomings within the agency.

After declaring that they were going on strike late last year, the UK government deployed the army in airports to check the passports of those arriving in Britain, something that many feared would create significant delays. However, reports ended up indicating that airport queues flowed far better than usual with the British Army in charge, raising questions regarding the competence of the Border Force as it exists today.

The UK government itself is far from blameless either, with many pundits expressing fear that a plan aimed at offering thousands of migrants asylum without so much as interviewing them and therefore potentially opening more room for dangerous individuals to gain the right to stay in the country.

“It is an absolute disgrace,” Brexiteer Nigel Farage said regarding the plan, which is aimed at cutting waiting times for migrants. “It is a total sell out, it is endangering our streets, our communities, our national security.”

Follow Peter Caddle on Twitter: @Peter_Caddle
Follow Breitbart London on Facebook: Breitbart London

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.