Travellers are facing bank holiday chaos as E-gates fail at all airports across the UK. The Home Office has confirmed that E-gates are failing at airports across the country, including East Midlands Airport due to a technical problem that has caused the electronic border gates to stop working.
The problem was first reported late on Friday, May 26, and have left travellers wanting to leave and exit the UK waiting for hours reports the Daily Mirror. During the early hours of Saturday, May 27, East Midlands Airport tweeted: "UK Border Force is currently experiencing an issue impacting all of its e-Gates.
"This may result in longer waiting times for passengers. Our team is working with UKBF to support their operations and minimise disruption. We appreciate your understanding."
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Photos of long lines at airports around the UK have been shared on social media, as all incoming passengers were forced to use manned passport desks rather than the automatic gates which have electronic passport canners.
The Home Office, which is responsible for border control, said it was working to correct the problem. It said: "We are aware of a nationwide border system issue affecting arrivals into the UK.
"We are working to resolve the issue as soon as possible and are liaising with port operators and airlines to minimise disruption for travellers."
One passenger at Gatwick has described the situation as an "utter joke", whilst another at Heathrow spoke of the "mother of all queues". Lucy Morton, from the Immigration Services Union, warned that queues would build "very, very quickly".
She said: "You end up putting all the passengers through physically-manned officer desks. Staff can't take the breaks that they should be taking... the whole thing will snowball very quickly."
She added that depending on the airport, usually 60-80% of travelling passengers will go through e-gates. This means significant pressure is being placed on the manned gates.
Ms Morton continued: ""There's no impact on national security. But it will build queues and that in itself builds its own set of problems.
"People becomes frustrated, they take it out on the staff. All of this will cascade during the day."
Technical issues have also caused problems at the Port of Dover, meaning major tailbacks on roads into the Kent coastal town.
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