OT/ Watch what you wear at UK POE
Jun 2nd 2003, 3:28 pm
#1
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Joined: Oct 2002
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OT/ Watch what you wear at UK POE
Read this on the BBC news site today
White loafers and passport control
By Brian Wheeler
BBC News Online
Next time you are queuing up to have your passport
stamped, take a good look at your fellow passengers' footwear. Or indeed, your own.
Wearing the wrong type of shoe could land you in a lot of trouble, according to Tony Saint, a former immigration officer at London's Heathrow airport.
Anything too tacky or extravagant - fake crocodile skin, say, or white loafers with tassels - and you will be refused entry, or "knocked-off" in the brutal argot of the UK immigration service.
Immigration control can be an arbitrary business, Saint claims, and hard-pressed officers can often fall back on snap judgements.
"Immigration Officers will make judgements about people based on how they look. Refusal shoes is an old established gag in the service. But it's not entirely a joke, because people use it.
"If you see someone from a Third World flight, they may look the part of the international businessman.
"They may have the suit, may have the suitcase, the tie. But just have a look at the shoes and they will be the give-away as to whether they are genuine or not."
Saint spent 10 years on UK immigration's front line, initially at Heathrow Terminal 3, and then at the Eurostar terminal at Waterloo.
He has poured his experiences into his first novel, a darkly comic thriller set in a fictional Heathrow Terminal C which is a murky cesspit of corruption, malice and bigotry.
Immigration officers compete with each other to see how many foreigners they can send back.
One character is running a sophisticated smuggling operation.
Another has a lucrative sideline in scamming "airport tax" from gullible tourists. And officers searching the airport toilets for drugs see any finds as "fair game".
A lot of this stuff is apocryphal, Saint says, exaggerated for comic effect.
But he adds: "The culture of the service would allow that sort of thing to go on, if it was certain individuals doing it. Blind eyes are turned."
What is real he says - and what he found most disturbing about his time in the service - is the amount of power concentrated in the hands of individual immigration officers.
"Under the Immigration Act, as it is applied, the refusal of passengers who don't claim asylum is all down to the discretion of individual officers.
"The Act says a passenger needs to satisfy the immigration officer that he qualifies for entry.
"You can get officers who have a lower level of satisfaction than others. And some who just can't get no satisfaction.
"That's why you end up with a situation where some officers will refuse several times more than the guy on the desk next to them."
Some nationalities, such as Nigerians, are routinely singled out for special treatment, while others are waved through without a second glance.
But Saint insists the service is not institutionally racist.
"Segregation is very much based on nationality.
"The longer you do the job, the less aware you are of the colour of people's skin, the more aware you aware of the colour of the front of their passport.
"Slovakians used to get a hard time. Lithuanians used to get nailed all the time. Brazilians, whatever colour they are, their chances of getting through are limited.
"It's not racist. In an obverse kind of way, you become colour blind, because you just don't care about where these people are from."
Not surprisingly, his former employers are less than impressed with his literary debut. "The Home Office has asked me to stress that what goes on in the book is entirely fictitious. It doesn't reflect on their current operational procedures."
But it does highlight how the debate about asylum seekers has made life more difficult for immigration officers and refugees alike, Saint believes.
"What asylum has become, for a lot of people, is a loophole, a way of circumventing the immigration rules," he says.
"Not for all people - I have heard many stories from asylum seekers, where I would say if it was up to me, I would give them refugee status straight away.
"At the other end of the scale, certainly in Geneva Convention terms, there are those that plainly wouldn't qualify for refugee status.
"But in the middle you have the majority of cases, with amorphous, nebulous stories, which can't be proved or disproved - and that's the industrial side of the asylum business.
"I'm not saying these individuals don't merit staying in the UK. What bugs me about it is the bogus morality of the issue, as it's presented in the media. You've got one side saying, all these people are a disgrace, which is patently not true.
"And you've got the other side which says that simply by virtue of someone claiming political asylum we should suspend all judgement," Saint says.
'Designed for crooks'
"One of the ironies of the immigration system, as it's operating now, is that if someone has come for a better life, if you have no criminal past, you are not going to cause any trouble over here, you have to wait for two years to get a steady job.
"If you are a crook, it's almost designed for you. You can turn up in the morning and be at work in the afternoon.
"But because asylum seekers are lumped together as this great unit - we won't let asylum seekers work, we'll put them over here - you discount the individuality of the situation."
White loafers and passport control
By Brian Wheeler
BBC News Online
Next time you are queuing up to have your passport
stamped, take a good look at your fellow passengers' footwear. Or indeed, your own.
Wearing the wrong type of shoe could land you in a lot of trouble, according to Tony Saint, a former immigration officer at London's Heathrow airport.
Anything too tacky or extravagant - fake crocodile skin, say, or white loafers with tassels - and you will be refused entry, or "knocked-off" in the brutal argot of the UK immigration service.
Immigration control can be an arbitrary business, Saint claims, and hard-pressed officers can often fall back on snap judgements.
"Immigration Officers will make judgements about people based on how they look. Refusal shoes is an old established gag in the service. But it's not entirely a joke, because people use it.
"If you see someone from a Third World flight, they may look the part of the international businessman.
"They may have the suit, may have the suitcase, the tie. But just have a look at the shoes and they will be the give-away as to whether they are genuine or not."
Saint spent 10 years on UK immigration's front line, initially at Heathrow Terminal 3, and then at the Eurostar terminal at Waterloo.
He has poured his experiences into his first novel, a darkly comic thriller set in a fictional Heathrow Terminal C which is a murky cesspit of corruption, malice and bigotry.
Immigration officers compete with each other to see how many foreigners they can send back.
One character is running a sophisticated smuggling operation.
Another has a lucrative sideline in scamming "airport tax" from gullible tourists. And officers searching the airport toilets for drugs see any finds as "fair game".
A lot of this stuff is apocryphal, Saint says, exaggerated for comic effect.
But he adds: "The culture of the service would allow that sort of thing to go on, if it was certain individuals doing it. Blind eyes are turned."
What is real he says - and what he found most disturbing about his time in the service - is the amount of power concentrated in the hands of individual immigration officers.
"Under the Immigration Act, as it is applied, the refusal of passengers who don't claim asylum is all down to the discretion of individual officers.
"The Act says a passenger needs to satisfy the immigration officer that he qualifies for entry.
"You can get officers who have a lower level of satisfaction than others. And some who just can't get no satisfaction.
"That's why you end up with a situation where some officers will refuse several times more than the guy on the desk next to them."
Some nationalities, such as Nigerians, are routinely singled out for special treatment, while others are waved through without a second glance.
But Saint insists the service is not institutionally racist.
"Segregation is very much based on nationality.
"The longer you do the job, the less aware you are of the colour of people's skin, the more aware you aware of the colour of the front of their passport.
"Slovakians used to get a hard time. Lithuanians used to get nailed all the time. Brazilians, whatever colour they are, their chances of getting through are limited.
"It's not racist. In an obverse kind of way, you become colour blind, because you just don't care about where these people are from."
Not surprisingly, his former employers are less than impressed with his literary debut. "The Home Office has asked me to stress that what goes on in the book is entirely fictitious. It doesn't reflect on their current operational procedures."
But it does highlight how the debate about asylum seekers has made life more difficult for immigration officers and refugees alike, Saint believes.
"What asylum has become, for a lot of people, is a loophole, a way of circumventing the immigration rules," he says.
"Not for all people - I have heard many stories from asylum seekers, where I would say if it was up to me, I would give them refugee status straight away.
"At the other end of the scale, certainly in Geneva Convention terms, there are those that plainly wouldn't qualify for refugee status.
"But in the middle you have the majority of cases, with amorphous, nebulous stories, which can't be proved or disproved - and that's the industrial side of the asylum business.
"I'm not saying these individuals don't merit staying in the UK. What bugs me about it is the bogus morality of the issue, as it's presented in the media. You've got one side saying, all these people are a disgrace, which is patently not true.
"And you've got the other side which says that simply by virtue of someone claiming political asylum we should suspend all judgement," Saint says.
'Designed for crooks'
"One of the ironies of the immigration system, as it's operating now, is that if someone has come for a better life, if you have no criminal past, you are not going to cause any trouble over here, you have to wait for two years to get a steady job.
"If you are a crook, it's almost designed for you. You can turn up in the morning and be at work in the afternoon.
"But because asylum seekers are lumped together as this great unit - we won't let asylum seekers work, we'll put them over here - you discount the individuality of the situation."
Jun 2nd 2003, 4:17 pm
#2
Forum Regular
Joined: May 2003
Location: Hall, IN
Posts: 72
I'll tell my girl to wear good shoes in 9 days time 
