American immigration officials may soon be stationed in European airports
By B.R.
THE thing about airport immigration queues is that you only get to experience how awful other countries’ are. A bit like driving, we swear at the idiots around us, while convincing ourselves of our own irreproachability because we never get to hear the exasperation of those we have just cut up. Still, Gulliver can think of nowhere in the rich world in which immigration is as consistently chaotic as America. Things have certainly improved with the introduction of the ESTA visa system, but still the queues at American airports can last hours and the immigration officers tend towards an unappealing blend of the surly and the incompetent.
The Daily Telegraph reports that earlier this month travellers on a British Airways flight “waited up to 138 minutes to clear immigration at JFK”. So many of the 4m Britons who travel to the United States each year will no doubt be delighted to hear of a plan to station American immigration officers at two British airports, London Heathrow and Manchester. These will process travellers before they leave the country, and with luck considerably speed up entrance at the other end. And, as the Telegraph goes on, processing people before they board the plane would be popular on both sides of the pond:
There has also been concern in the White House at the poor impression visitors to the US get of the country on their arrival at a time when tourism plays an increasingly important role in the American economy.
[...] The Obama administration believes [the move] would improve the country’s safety by preventing terrorists boarding a plane in the first place.
“I want to take every opportunity we have to expand homeland security beyond our borders," said [Jeh] Johnson [America’s homeland security secretary] last year. “To use a football metaphor, I’d much rather defend our end-zone from the 50-yard line than from our one-yard line.”
Pre-arrival clearance has been available for those flying from, or refuelling at, Shannon airport in Ireland for some time. This was one of the bonuses of IAG, the parent of British Airways, acquiring Aer Lingus, an Irish carrier. Eight other European airports may also be included in the scheme, reports the Telegraph, including Schiphol in Amsterdam, Madrid-Barajas and Arlanda Airport in Stockholm. Still, it will probably take two years for officials on both sides of the Atlantic to agree upon and then implement the scheme in Britain. And, of course, there is always the danger that the immigration officers that are sent over here will be just as surly and incompetent as those they employ at home. But let’s stay optimistic.
