Four-hour Heathrow queues after Border Force staff sent to help Afghan refugees

Travellers claim only a quarter of passport control desks in Terminals two and five were open to handle hundreds of arrivals

Holidaymakers were hit by four-hour queues at Heathrow Airport over the Bank Holiday weekend after Border Force staff were sent to help Afghan refugees.

Pregnant women and families with young children were among those who had to sit on the floor amid “brutal queues” due to staff shortages, passengers said.

Travellers claimed on social media that only a quarter of passport control desks in Terminals two and five were open to handle hundreds of arriving passengers.

The Home Office confirmed that the delays were caused by Border Force officers being redeployed to help process those fleeing Afghanistan since the Taliban took control of the country.

Pictures on social media showed hundreds waiting in lengthy queues. Though most were wearing masks, passengers said there were “no measures to distance people” and feared being “packed in” alongside red list arrivals.

‘Families were waiting hours’

One passenger, Jason Reed, criticised “perverse arrangements” at Heathrow Terminal 5, where adults could use contactless e-gates on arrival but families with children under 12 had to queue for a manned gate under Border Force rules. “Huge queue last night at 11pm with many very tired small children,” he wrote on Twitter.

One woman arriving from Zurich, in Switzerland, told the Evening Standard: “Families were waiting hours. You had people with babies, young children, pregnant women, all just stuck.”

It came as the latest UK travel list changes came into effect from 4am on Monday.  Seven countries were added to the quarantine-free green list – the Azores, Canada, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania and Liechtenstein. However, Thailand and Montenegro were moved up to the red list requiring hotel quarantine.

Under Covid rules, passengers have to show proof of a negative test and fill out a passenger locator form on return to Britain.

Heathrow said it had called on the Government to “address the problem” of border delays “as a matter of urgency”, after previous queues due to the “pingdemic” of isolation alerts.

The Home Office said Border Force officers “are redeployed to provide support as and when required, and are playing a vital role by working round the clock to support arrivals from Afghanistan”.

A spokesman added: “Our utmost priority is protecting the safety and health of the public. That means, occasionally, passengers will need to accept an increase in the time taken to cross the border, especially during peak travel periods.”

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