Justin Bieber and F1 teams trapped in new Heathrow Airport chaos

 
Log jam: queues snake around the terminal building at T5 border control

Immigration chiefs today called for hundreds more border staff to be recruited before the Olympic Games as Formula One teams and TV historian Mary Beard were caught in the latest queuing chaos at Heathrow.

Frustrated passengers tweeted that they were standing in the “longest line ever known to mankind” and described the scenes at Terminal Five as “passport control from hell”.

Among the arrivals were pop star Justin Bieber, technicians returning from the Bahrain Grand Prix, and Roman history expert Ms Beard. She tweeted that “border controls have queues of hours” and later revealed that only one booth was working on the supposedly fast-track “Iris” eye-scanning system.

The delays came as Lucy Moreton, from the Immigration Services Union, warned that passengers from outside Europe were facing daily hold-ups of “four to five” hours because of a shortage of staff.

She said that at least 360 more border guards were needed at Heathrow, Gatwick and the Channel Tunnel, and warned of serious damage to Britain’s image if the problems were not solved in time for the Olympics.

Ms Moreton said that plans to deploy 180 partly trained officers were inadequate. “Queuing times of up to four to five hours are occurring on a daily basis at peak times at all the Heathrow terminals.”

At the same time, former UK Border Agency chief Brodie Clark, who quit last year after a clash with Home Secretary Theresa May, said that full security checks on all incoming passengers would have to be eased to prevent excessive queuing.

He said checks should be focused on higher-risk arrivals and the current “box tickers” approach was creating unnecessary delays for other passengers.

The comments came as hundreds of Formula One fans and technicians returning from the Bahrain Grand Prix were caught up in the backlogs.

Xevi Pujolar, race engineer for Venezuelan driver Pastor Maldonado tweeted: “Just landed at London Heathrow and big chaos in the passport control!”

TV technician Phil Taylor said: “Normally I give heathrow t5 a good rap. However this morning it resembles passport control from hell.” The Home Office said that it was aiming to “keep disruption to a minimum” through the flexible use of staff.

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