Passport control queue at Manchester Airport

[simmo]

Know this is slightly off-topic but wondering in particular if any of the current/ex IOs on this board can maybe comment?

My wife and I arrived at Manchester Airport Terminal 1 this morning coming home from a break in Canada.

Me (UK citizen) and wife (Canadian citizen, UK ILR) were faced with a 1h+ wait in non-EU passport control queue which moved at a snail's pace (an inbound TK flight seemed to be delaying things somewhat). However, the kick in the teeth was that once all UK/EU passengers had cleared, staff at these desks did not call across non-EU people to help move the queue as I have seen at ports before. In otherwords, they just sat there whilst the non-EU queue continued to snake out the room.

To take the biscuit, once we had cleared we looked backwards at the EU desks and one of the agents sitting there (doing nothing) was reading a magazine!!!! I mean, these are public servants whose salaries we pay.

I am thinking a complaint to UKBA (as well as to Manchester Airport itself) may be in order here.

[INSIDER]

I am a current IO.

First off, you needn't have waited in the non-Eu queue. The convention is that non-EU family members should be seen at the EU queue if travelling with the EU passport holder.
In fact, we are instructed by managers to see all and any passengers at any desk they present themselves. In practice however this does not happen as it can make the queues even worse on EU if lots of non-EU passport holders needing detailed questioning are dealt with at the EU desk.
While I can see your point about the IOs dealing with non-EU passengers on the EU desks if there are no EU passengers there could be a problem if a flight full of EU passengers arrives only to be held up by the non EU passengers being dealt with. However, what we often -Not all the time- do at my terminal in such situations is to move some of the IOs over and leave perhaps one or two IOs on EU just in case. I wouldn't have thought there would have been many IOs-maybe one or two- on EU when it cleared in Manchester.
As for the magazine reading, you are right. Most unprofessional. However, it may well have been an in house UKBA staff magazine he/she was reading. I confess to have done this myself during a quiet period but I try to do it discreetly.

If you still wish to complain it is better to write to the CIO or Inspector at UKBA Manchester Airport rather than BAA or whoever owns Manchester airport as they have no say over UKBA staff.

[simmo]

I am a current IO.

First off, you needn't have waited in the non-Eu queue. The convention is that non-EU family members should be seen at the EU queue if travelling with the EU passport holder.
In fact, we are instructed by managers to see all and any passengers at any desk they present themselves. In practice however this does not happen as it can make the queues even worse on EU if lots of non-EU passport holders needing detailed questioning are dealt with at the EU desk.
While I can see your point about the IOs dealing with non-EU passengers on the EU desks if there are no EU passengers there could be a problem if a flight full of EU passengers arrives only to be held up by the non EU passengers being dealt with. However, what we often -Not all the time- do at my terminal in such situations is to move some of the IOs over and leave perhaps one or two IOs on EU just in case. I wouldn't have thought there would have been many IOs-maybe one or two- on EU when it cleared in Manchester.
As for the magazine reading, you are right. Most unprofessional. However, it may well have been an in house UKBA staff magazine he/she was reading. I confess to have done this myself during a quiet period but I try to do it discreetly.

If you still wish to complain it is better to write to the CIO or Inspector at UKBA Manchester Airport rather than BAA or whoever owns Manchester airport as they have no say over UKBA staff.

Thanks for the insight, INSIDER. It is really good to have your (pardon the pun) inside view

I take your point about a flight of EU passengers arriving, but don't see the harm in calling forward non-EU pax on a pax-by-pax basis, which could easily be stopped and normal procedures resume when EU pax arrive.

Another thought that occurred to me was that maybe these staff were not able to handle non-EU pax. I remember reading somewhere that during the height of the 'long queues' in the media some managers etc were drafted in but only apparently (trained) to handle EU passengers. But I thought that was over now.

Thanks again for your insight, though.