Passport e-gates at UK airports down

Passengers flying into the UK are facing agelong delays astatine passport controls arsenic e-gates crossed the state person gone down.

The contented is affecting radical arriving astatine UK airports, the Home Office said, aft the strategy went down past night.

One rider astatine Gatwick said it was an "utter joke", portion different astatine Heathrow spoke of the "mother of each queues".

Lucy Morton, from the Immigration Services Union, warned that queues would physique "very, precise quickly".

"You extremity up putting each the passengers done physically-manned serviceman desks," she told the BBC's Radio 4.

"Staff can't instrumentality the breaks that they should beryllium taking ... the full happening volition snowball precise quickly."

She said betwixt 60-80% of travelling passengers volition spell done e-gates, depending connected the airport.

"There's nary interaction connected nationalist security," she said. "But it volition physique queues."

All airports crossed the state that usage the gates are affected, meaning radical flying successful are having to queue to get their passports checked manually.

The e-gate strategy speeds up passport power by allowing immoderate passengers to scan their ain passports. The strategy uses facial designation to verify a traveller's individuality and captures an representation of the traveller arsenic they walk done the gate.

A Home Office spokesperson said they were alert of a "nationwide borderline strategy contented affecting arrivals into the UK".

"We are moving to resoluteness the contented arsenic soon arsenic imaginable and are liaising with larboard operators and airlines to minimise disruption for travellers," they said.

There person besides been IT issues astatine the Port of Dover for radical trying to permission the UK.

The French strategy to cheque passports failed earlier this morning.

It has present been fixed, but volition instrumentality clip to wide the backlog of cars and lorries, connected what was already expected to beryllium a engaged weekend, with the Bank vacation coinciding with the half-term break.

Have your question plans been affected by the delays? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

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