[PMWelsh]

I have been following this topic with both a sense of amusement and concern.

I too had many years experience of working within the Border Force albeit not in an ivory tower on a project, but on the frontline. It has always been my view the introduction of the e-gate system was an attempt to deal with large queues created because senior management at Lunar House (known within the industry as Lunatic House), circa 2005 decided to implement 100 percent checks (swiping) of passports/passengers following 7/7. It appeared they took no consideration of the fact arrival halls and officer numbers were woefully inadequate, took no consideration of airline moves (such as KLM and Air France at Manchester) over a number of years from terminal 1 to 2 to terminal 3, the number of passenger loads and expanaion of the EU and the economic downturn elsewhere in the world attracting people to the UK. Incidentally, the call and associated cost for e-gates, may have a lot to do with the impractical and ‘business unfriendly’ rigid system of deploying staff at Manchester Airport which now has its several roster system change in nearly 3 and a half years – which has made no difference.

For those of you who suffer the queues at Manchester, especially, long suffering daily business commuters to Paris or Amsterdam, you may wish to ask why, senior local Border Force management did not use their influence to prevent KLM/Air France moving to a terminal in 2011 which does not have e-gates and is much too small and not fit for purposel. Believe me, travellers have the sympathy of my colleagues. None of my colleagues and I want to deliberately create queues. The cry for e-gates is understandable particularly at the countries third busiest airport.

Forget the kodak moments (fly on the wall documentaries of the Border Force), myths and propaganda Hollywood project of a sophisticated IT system. The system I used was not fit for purpose and it is what the e-gates were linked to. No computer system will replace an inquring mind or pair of eyes. Senior management can always save queuing times and the cost to the public purse by a. Getting rid of e-gates and b. Allowing front line officers to profile passengers of interest. No amount of technology will detect forged or counterfeit entry and exit stamps. No machine will detect intention or origin of travel. No machine will collate information of interest to other departments – law enforcement, social security etc.

What does a terror suspect look like? How many evade detection by using the e-gates to slip into the UK and avoid examination upon arrival? From conversations I have had with former police colleagues and following the media, suspects (naturalised UK by virtue of long stay using their UK or in many cases EEA passports), deliberately return on charter flights such as from Turkey, blend in and use the e-gates.

You may not think it matters or you – however if we are continually beinv told of the dangers to our personal (bio) security, you might just might be interested in who is sat next to you on your next journey and what their intentions are.

I can recall a senior manager joking about the e-gates “they are great because they do not ask awkward questions” Management or passengers of interest? Answers on a postcard.

Was it the case the e-gates were deliberately switched off for all arriving PIA at Manchester a few years ago as part of an operation? If so aside from underminding their credibility also added to the queuing times.

Will the gates be closed if there was a major security incident to rival 7/7?

If you are fortunate to have a “popular name”, rather than a “common name” e.g Smith, Mohammed or Brown regardless of the spelling, you are likely to be rejected. Is this because the watchlist ‘s capability is woeful and not fit for purpose?

If anything e-gates would make more sense as a supplement to embarkations.

[MarcusGB]

I came through LCY last week, and they have 4/5 gates for Chip EU passports there now also. frankly needed as the airport is now hugely used and up to saturation as i mentioned on my thread last week.

I never have problems coming into T4 (I use KLM and Skyteam Airlines, Etihad, so always T4), but often see people shuffling around or not looking into camera, or with their glasses still on, and it will not work. they get rejected and put into the manual check queue. So, you must have yr face clear of hats, scarves, glasses, stand firm, look at camera.

Having said that, the IRIS scheme was even quicker, and a great shame they removed it.

Schiphol,Amsterdam have EU Chip passports at Terminal 3, so mostly low cost carriers. It is not yet available at T2 KLM, or T1 for EU schengen areas.
However, on every occasion at Schiphol T3, when i have used it, i get flagged up, and an Immigration officer comes to collect me and i get taken round to a room!
It turns out, someone with my surname and initial, is wanted for not paying a fine in NL’s, but i am “Released” quickly, as when they make the detailed check, it is someone with a different christian and middle name to mine! However, i get stopped and pulled aside every time.

I demanded once that the Officer mention to his Senior Officer this problem, and being very Dutch and fair, they agreed it was not proper.
So, i now carry a letter they typed for me, in my passport saying i have been through 2nd level checks, and am not to be stopped as it does not concern me.
An actual normal Immigration Officer in Amsterdam, never stops me as they can see all my names, but the gate cannot!
this is what they tell me, the E-readers cannot discriminate with first names and those “wanted” and needing to be stopped.

There is a problem to solve?!

Privium iris scan at Schiphol also, Only one eye and quicker than the LHR balance of eyes which always held everyone up, is also excellent, but at about Euros 140, it is not worth it unless you travel through very frequently.

I also go through Sydney few times a year. IF you have Anything to declare, even simple medications, you Cannot use this and must go through manual checks.

Most of us carry something these days especially for a 24 hr Europe to Australia schedule, but you will be ripped of a few shreds if you do not declare even headache tablets in Sydney. So i do not use these gates and always go through Manual.

I always find the Immigration guys at Schiphol thorough, some are Military Police in the Black, so they are also disciplined , polite, and pleasant and friendly. Australia the same but psychology trained, excellent teamwork, and codes that change every day for the Customs Officers as to what screening they think you need, so very savvy. they are the most switched on in The World, strict border and Customs controls.

Both NL’s, and Australia, i find courteous, well humoured, balanced, but strict and thorough, and the most professional in the world.

[KennyK14]

I am hugely in favour of e-gates, as they are usually much quicker than waiting in line.
However – they are never open when I need them, particularly at Edinburgh Airport, although I have noticed this twice recently when going through Amsterdam (although at AMS, they opened the e-gates when there were about 30 people waiting in front of each immigration officer).

[ChrisHurrey]

Kenny – The gates being shut at certain times of the day is a common issue. The idea is that they gates should be available at all times, but since they require at least one officer to monitor them it is sometimes more advantageous to have that officer on the manual control to deal with both EU and non-EU passengers, especially if the arrivals control is quiet.

[ChrisHurrey]

Marcus – passenger familiarity with e-gates is still not universal, so people still do get rejected because they have not yet gained the ‘knack’ of standing in the right pose, removing spectacles etc. The guidance screens which are placed by most gate sets in Europe aim to solve this problem, but it persists. There is a similarity in this respect to ATMs: at first people were unfamiliar with how they worked, now more or less everyone uses them confidently and without really thinking about the process. I mentioned your positive comments about Schiphol passport control to a colleague of mine yesterday who is a policy officer for the Dutch Royal Marechaussee, the military police force who operate immigration control. He told me that as Schiphol terminals are redeveloped, more gates will be added. ‘Privium’ is set to continue for a few years yet. The e-Gate systems in Australia (and the US and Canada) are not purely passport control: they perform a customs role as well, one which is rather different to the European model.

[ChrisHurrey]

PMWelsh – you clearly know what you’re talking about and make some good, valid points. We may well have met when I was working on the e-gates project at Manchester(!) Unfortunately it’s a fact of life that more and more people travel and quite a lot of them travel more frequently. Staffing levels at passport controls around the world will not, barring serious events, be increased or even maintained, so something has to take the burden of dealing with the 99% of passengers who are of no interest. I take your point about certain passengers and agree that e-gates for departing passengers might make sense.

[ChrisHurrey]

CXDiamond – I have personally passed your comments about the Heathrow Terminal 2 gates to the project manager.

[ChrisHurrey]

Stephen – this is a most valuable forum and I hope I can add some value. The IRIS system did allow non-EU residents and frequent visitors to use self-service and a fast-track service is being reintroduced for former IRIS customers from certain nationalities. I believe that self-service entry and exit will be possible in future for more classes of low-risk passenger and the European Commission is planning a common European registered traveller programme for a few years hence. The project I am involved in – FastPass – is helping to shape that concept and prototype parts of it, hence my interest in feedback from readers of this forum.

[MartynSinclair]

E Gates in Frankfurt T2 (arrivals) appear out of action for at least the next month. When I queried this with the very pleasant immigration official, the answer was “Software update”…

From looks of things and the amount of wires hanging out, it looked more like a total overhaul!!!

[icenspice]

@MartynSinclair

I had the same problem this morning, although some passengers were getting through. It was the first arrival of the day so there was no queue for the manned desks.

[openfly]

Amsterdams passport reading machines are amazingly fast and seem to work every time!

[Charles-P]

The e-gates at Abu Dhabi now recognise EU electronic passports but one must pre-register first.

[afrance]

If I remember well Lisbon inbound works well on the chip – T2 – the low cost Lisbon outbound sometimes works but often isn’t turned on.

It also worked in Dublin (which slightly interested me – as there should be no passport control on an inbound flight STN to DUB I thought – but it was quicker than waiting in line!)

The one that infuriated me the other week was Gatwick North terminal where there were monster queues for immigration – they were helpfully filtering out the passengers with chipped passports, but I noticed that queue was moving more slowly than the other queues. Getting to the front the reason was obvious – the gates weren’t working and there were only two immigration officers managing the inbound queue. I asked if the gates had just failed – “No sir, it’s like this every evening”…

My experience with the gates as a very regular user generally is that I’ve never had problems with them – they are sometimes a little slower than a real person but typically you are through the immigration queues much quicker.

[DavidGordon10]

Vast immigration queues like those described by afrance are a disgrace. Last Thursday evening, at Heathrow T2, the huge queue for European passports had only two immigration officers checking the passports. Judging by the screens in the baggage area, up to 17 flights had arrived recently.

How can anyone justify such incompetent management of the staffing needed? There were three plain-clothes goons behind the immigration desks, eyeing the hordes – but, of course, they told me they had nothing to do with immigration….

This is a real danger, because very slow queues become angry queues, and angry queues can become disorderly or violent queues.

Then for there to be some political gesture saying that outbound passport checks are to be reintroduced, yet again, just shows how out of touch our politicians are.

[mkcol74]

Arriving into T3 on Monday around 1500 of the 5 (I think) e-gates 2 were inactive.

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