British passport holder-still being bugged by border officer

Hi,

I wanted to know more about your experience with British border officers after obtaining British passport.

I personally prefer automatic gates as the computer doesn't ask me stupid questions about where I've been, why I've been there and how long etc and rotating my passport in all direction to try to find something wrong with it. I thought once I had gained British citizenship I would finally have an easier time at border control.

Yesterday I was quizzed for a while by a border officer. The tone was very mean and disrespectful. I was wondering if legally I am obliged to answer these questions? Or legally, the officer is entitled to ask them? Can I just keep quiet while being questioned?

the officer is entitled to ask them?

Yes, they are. Even British born people can get questioned. You will only make things more difficult for yourself if you refuse to answer their questions.

I myself have been searched by a female officer and body x-rayed 3 times at Gatwick in less than a year while flying out of the UK to Europe and my husband has been searched (person and luggage) several times on returning to the UK and he is British by birth.

Just accept the fact and be grateful that they are doing their jobs.

What I don't understand is that if it's a requirement by law, how come the automatic gates don't get to ask these questions and treat you like this?

I would 100% refuse to be x-rayed, give me a little dosage of radiation to make what point exactly? Maybe just because many have accepted this is the reason we are being treated like this.

mavdi wrote:Or legally, the officer is entitled to ask them?

The officer is legally required to verify the identity of all EEA citizens entering the UK. He can ask questions if he chooses to. But if you can prove that you are a British/EEA citizen, he is also obliged to let you through.

There is a balance to be struck between his obligation to scrutinise your identity and his obligation to let you through.

mavdi wrote:I would 100% refuse to be x-rayed

At the end of the day, I do not wish to travel to the other world just as yet and I would be comforted by the knowledge that all my co-passengers are flying to a common destination and not planning to alter the destination. So, I would rather that all co-passengers (including myself) be x-rayed.

I've heard that after the Mumbai attacks, one needs to go through airport style security to get on their trains!!! And their crush hour is miles worse than anything on London trains.

mavdi wrote:What I don't understand is that if it's a requirement by law, how come the automatic gates don't get to ask these questions and treat you like this?

Whatever makes you think that epassport gates do not treat you like that?
Epassport gates do exactly the same job of verifying your identity. Some people find that more intrusive as their biometrics are being verified against some unknown databases and by unknown systems over which they have no control. At least with an IO, you can have a pleasant chat (some of them are a treasure trove of travel information).

Whatever makes you think that epassport gates do not treat you like that?

Because I design these systems for a living. The officers have the same exact biometric readers as the biometrics gates. They see the exact same details the automatic systems see and the same checks are done. The only extra work they need to do is visual identity verification. ie. looking at your face and confirming it's the person in the photo.

mavdi wrote:Because I design these systems for a living.

That is interesting. Then you would know more about them than most people on these forums. I presume that you design more than just the hardware.

I would be very interested in your thoughts on how secure they are as regards the security of the data that the systems hold.

mavdi wrote:Hi,

I wanted to know more about your experience with British border officers after obtaining British passport.

I personally prefer automatic gates as the computer doesn't ask me stupid questions about where I've been, why I've been there and how long etc and rotating my passport in all direction to try to find something wrong with it. I thought once I had gained British citizenship I would finally have an easier time at border control.

Yesterday I was quizzed for a while by a border officer. The tone was very mean and disrespectful. I was wondering if legally I am obliged to answer these questions? Or legally, the officer is entitled to ask them? Can I just keep quiet while being questioned?

My friend, this isn't freedom, this is fear.

secret.simon wrote:

mavdi wrote:Because I design these systems for a living.

That is interesting. Then you would know more about them than most people on these forums. I presume that you design more than just the hardware.

I would be very interested in your thoughts on how secure they are as regards the security of the data that the systems hold.

I don't work on this system specifically but I work on the backend server side of similar systems and I can tell you the only thing certain with such systems is that it will get hacked. It's just a matter of someone being determined enough and putting the resources to hack the system. Having access to every UK citizen data is the criminal's wet dream, they are constantly under attack and I am confident they've already been stolen more than once.

Obviously these guys do their best to secure their system but we live in a world where security giants themselves get hacked to hell.

Hopefully you are SC cleared....