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Travelers arriving in the UK faced hours of delays on Saturday after technical problems shut down electronic border gates at airports across the country, forcing everyone to manually check their passports on what is expected to be one of the busiest travel weekends of the year. this.
The Home Office, the government agency responsible for immigration and borders, said it was working to correct “problems with the national border system,” although it did not elaborate on what caused the problems.
Airport operators appealed for patience and apologized for delays as frustrated people took to social media to post photos of long lines at airports, including Manchester in northern England and London’s Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport.
Travel is expected to be busy over the next few days as the three-day weekend coincides with the start of a week-long holiday for most schools in Britain.
“We are aware of issues with the national border system which are affecting arrivals to the UK,” the Home Office said in a statement. “We are working to resolve the issue as soon as possible and are liaising with port operators and airlines to minimize disruption to travellers.”
The trouble, which began on Friday night, comes as Britain’s airports, airlines and ferry operators try to rebuild goodwill with the public after a series of disruptions caused travel chaos last summer as foreign travel surged following the coronavirus pandemic.
The electronic passport gate is an automated self-service barrier designed to streamline the travel document process. Using facial recognition technology, the system verifies a traveler’s identity against data stored on a chip in the passport.
There are currently 270 such gates at 15 air and rail ports in the UK, according to the Home Office. They are open to anyone over the age of 12 who holds a passport from the UK, EU member states, Australia, Canada, Iceland, Japan, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland and the United States.
Around 86 per cent of people entering the UK each year are eligible to use electronic gates, according to the Home Office.
Heathrow and other airports have pledged to do what they can to ease congestion.
“We are aware of national issues affecting eGates, which are operated by the Border Force,” Heathrow said in a statement.
“This issue is affecting a number of ports of entry and is not Heathrow specific. Our team is working with the Border Force to help resolve the issue quickly and we have additional colleagues to manage queues and provide for passenger welfare.’ ‘
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