Passenger anger over 'closed' Birmingham airport passport scanners

Sep 18 2011 by Adam Aspinall, Sunday Mercury

PASSENGERS at Birmingham International Airport are complaining of long delays in arrivals – because there are not enough staff to monitor the new ePassport barriers.

The hi-tech gates have been gradually introduced across the country by the UK Border Agency (UKBA), at a cost of £9 million.

The automated barriers use facial recognition to identify passengers and were designed to speed up arrivals.

The gates went live in Birmingham in August 2009, but returning holidaymakers claim they are now often closed.

One airport worker admitted: “The situation has got worse, not better, in the past 12 months. The UKBA has not got enough officers to man them and the numbers have just been cut again.

“It’s bad for passengers but it’s worse for the UKBA people, as they are overworked and the public are giving them a lot of grief.

“The gates cost about £1 million to install in Birmingham and they have been used occasionally, but a lot of the time they are closed.”

A Freedom of Information request to UKBA shows that between August 31, 2009, and November 25, 2010, the ePassport gates at Birmingham were not operational for a combined period of nearly two months. But the agency refused to specify the exact reasons why they were out of action.