UK introducing major change to airports to avoid travel chaos this summer

Hundreds of soldiers and sailors will be trained to cover striking Border Force guards.

The members of the armed forces will have to learn how to check passports and spot potential national security threats.

This major change will be introduced in a Government’s bid to prepare for a potential summer of travel chaos at ports and airports.

But the decision is criticised by the unions representing the border control workers as they warn that it poses a massive threat to national security.

Members of the armed forces trained for temporary replacement will have limited power in their posts as they won’t be able to stop potential criminals suspected in carrying a false passport, drug-smuggling, people-trafficking and victims of modern slavery if they hold valid travel documents.

Meanwhile, Britons planning to go to Spain this summerhave already been warned of significant disruptions they may face.

Armed forces will step in to cover for striking Border Control officers

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) and Immigration Service Union (ISU), which both represent Border Force guards, are considering strike action over the summer months. This is expected to lead to travel disruption, and the Government is launching their own solution to the problem.

Starting from Monday members of the armed forces will be given five days’ training before checking passports at Heathrow and Gatwick airports and Dover port.

The training follows the deployment of more than 600 soldiers, RAF staff and Royal Navy staff during strikes over the Christmas period. They worked in London as well asBirmingham, Cardiff, Manchester and Glasgow airports during the winter holiday season.

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Unions: deploying soldiers on border control is a threat to national security

Unions warn that the latest Government move will diminish security at points of entry to the UK.

As the training for summer replacement is limited to five days - from three weeks given to Border Force guards - the members of the armed forces won’t have the necessary skills to stop potential criminals from entering Britain.

Once deployed, the temporary staff in uniform will not have the power to detain suspected drug dealers, terrorists or victims of trafficking, and will instead have to ask a fully trained Border Force staff member to do that.

Lucy Moreton, the professional officer at the ISU, said:

The government is wasting yet more public money training military staff who cannot – through no fault of their own – provide even a fraction of the national security cover a border officer can.

The PCS general secretary, Mark Serwotka, said:

Time and again, the military has been clear it has its own job to do and doesn’t want to spend time covering for the government’s failures.

According to Serwotka, the decision is ‘a colossal waste of the military’s time and of public finances to pay soldiers to do the jobs of civil servants’.

Documents leaked to the Guardian in December showed that people suspected of crimes such as carrying a false passport, drug-smuggling, people-trafficking and victims of modern slavery cannot be stopped by members of the armed forces if they hold valid travel documents.

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Sources used:

- The Guardian: 'Soldiers to be trained to check passports amid UK fears of summer travel chaos'