'Britain's shambolic Border Agency has routinely dropped or downgraded major immigration controls for the past five years without ministerial approval, a devastating report revealed last night.
It found up to half a million Eurostar passengers arriving from French tourist resorts, including Disneyland Paris, were waved into Britain without facing any anti-terror checks.
The European nationals were not examined against the Home Office’s so-called Warnings Index, which contains details of terrorists and dangerous criminals who must be refused entry to keep the public safe.
The report, which was ordered after last year’s revelations that senior civil servants were abandoning passport checks, provoked fury, with MPs criticising Britain’s ‘Mickey Mouse’ immigration controls. Yesterday’s report also revealed how:
Staff at Heathrow Airport allowed foreign students into Britain last year – even if they did not have a valid visa;
Officials abandoned reading expensive biometric chips in passports nearly 15,000 times at ten ports between January and June last year;
Anti-terror checks were abandoned more than 350 times over the two years, mostly at ports in France, because long traffic jams were a ‘health and safety’ problem;
Such is the poor record-keeping at the agency, that the true implications of the border breaches may never be known;
On a number of occasions, including the Eurostar loophole, UKBA staff acted entirely without ministerial approval.
The report, by John Vine, chief inspector of the UK Border Agency, was commissioned last year following the so-called ‘Brodiegate’ scandal.'
it goes on...I thought increased immigration meant we'd all be richer?ok a bit of pressure on housing but all the socialists and big govt advocates assure us regularly that high levels of immigration make them rich.
This post has been edited by Zanu Bob: 21 February 2012 - 10:45 AM
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