Airline staff being trained to bar people without visas from flights to UK

The Foreign Office scheme, part of the rollout of the Electronic Travel Authorisation and eVisa system, is touted as key to Labour’s crackdown on immigration. Photograph: Ira Budanova/Alamy

Thousands of European airline staff are being trained to stop people boarding flights to Britain without valid visas, in a move billed by the foreign secretary as a digital upgrade to border controls.

David Lammy said the measures marked a step towards “more secure, more digital and more effective” borders, but the move could raise questions about human rights safeguards.