UKBA boss suspended after boarder controls ‘relaxed’
05.11.11
The head of the UK border force, Brodie Clark, has been suspended by the Home Office following claims crucial passport checks to stop terrorists and foreign criminals entering Britain were not carried out during the summer. It is alleged staff were told to relax identity checks on non-EU nationals at ports and airports including Heathrow and Calais. Two other UKBA officials have also been suspended; Graham Kyle, who is director of operations at Heathrow Airport, and Carole Upshall, director of the Border Force South and European Operation.
Staff working for the UK border force are responsible for checking passports and conducting immigration raids. They were ordered not to check biometric chips on passports of people from outside the EU, it is claimed. Biometric passports contain a digital image of the holder's face, which can be used to compare with the printed version and check the passport has not been forged. Staff were also allegedly instructed not to compare fingerprints or other personal details against the Home Office’s database of terror suspects and illegal immigrants.
The decisions to abandon the checks were taken without the knowledge of ministers and were designed to cut down queues at busy ports and airports and avoid complaints by holidaymakers. Home Secretary Theresa May's reaction to the developments was ‘incredulity and fury’, the BBC reports. Mr Clark was at first offered the opportunity of retiring by the UK Border Agency, but, following the intervention of the Home Office, was suspended pending an investigation.
Two investigations have been ordered. Dave Wood, who heads the enforcement and crime group at the UKBA, will carry out a two-week inquiry designed to discover to what extent checks were scaled down and what the security implications might have been. Ex-MI6 official Mike Anderson, director general of the strategy, immigration and international group at the Home Office, will investigate wider issues relating to the performance of UKBA.
Sue Smith, of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union, said job cuts had led to staffing shortages which forced rules to be relaxed in a bid to ‘give the travelling public what they want. The travelling public, understandably, want to have a fast and efficient service, and yet we are also under a reduced work force.'
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