LONDON, Nov 8, (Agencies): British lawmakers demanded to know Monday whether a policy of relaxing border checks on thousands of passengers at airports and ports could have put national security in jeopardy.
The country’s main opposition Labour Party said allegations that border staff had been ordered to routinely suspend some passport checks to ease lines during the summer vacation season were troubling.
Three officials with the country’s border agency have been suspended amid an investigation into the claims that scrutiny of biometric passports and other routine work had been scaled back to lessen waiting times.
Yvette Cooper, a Labour legislator, said Britons would be “understandably appalled and shocked” to learn some border checks had been halted.
Labor unions representing border staff say ministers had agreed to a relaxation on checks of British or European Union passengers arriving into Britain.
Opposition legislators said there are concerns that the order may have been extended to include non-European visitors as well.
“In particular, we need to know whether anyone posing a threat to Britain’s national security was allowed to enter the U.K.,” Cooper said in a letter sent to Home Secretary Theresa May.
May was to address the House of Commons later on Monday.Prime Minister David Cameron’s office says an inquiry is under way, but insisted that the leader had full confidence in May. The Public and Commercial Services Union claimed that border controls were relaxed to help ensure that cuts to the number of border staff didn’t result in longer lines at immigration posts.
“As far as our staff were concerned, this was all done with ministerial authority,” said Sue Smith, of the union.
Home Secretary Theresa May said on Tuesday she had no plans to resign in a row over border controls and that a pilot scheme she approved to ease controls had not jeopardised security.
Speaking to a parliamentary committee, May reiterated that officials had exceeded their authority in regularly diluting checks on people from outside the European Union.
May said on Monday that Britain would never know for certain how many suspected terrorists and serious criminals were waved into the country since July, when border officials unilaterally relaxed border controls.
May said simply “No” when asked whether she felt she should take responsibility for the confusion and resign. Opposition Labour had accused her of giving the green light for lighter controls to cut queues at ports and airports. “The pilot that I authorised did not in any way put border security at risk,” May said, adding that she had not discussed her scheme with Prime Minister David Cameron or the cabinet as it was an operational matter.
May said she had authorised a limited easing of passport checks for European Union nationals in a pilot programme that ran from July until it was cancelled last week, but border guards had gone further in suspending checks without permission.
Britain suspended the head of the UK Border Force and two of his senior staff last week, including the director of operations at London’s main Heathrow airport, after it discovered some passport checks had been abandoned.
The disclosure comes just months before London is due to host the 2012 Olympics, raising concerns that criminals or militants may have been able to enter Britain at a time when security was meant to be a priority.