Heathrow Border Staff Training Questioned

The Border Agency has been accused of allowing terror suspects on the Home Office watch list to enter the UK in the run-up to the Olympics.

A senior border officer has told The Observer newspaper that inexperienced recruits brought in from other departments and used to shorten lengthy queues are failing to carry out necessary security checks at passport control.

Speaking anonymously, the official said he was personally aware that three terror suspects, all registered on the Home Office watch list, had been waved through by staff on his shift since the start of July.

He told the paper: "It's all new faces. The rest of the staff, I have no idea where they have come from, how long they are here for, what their background is.

"These are people who have been forced by their own department to come here."

The crisis comes after the security firm G4S announced it could not provide enough security guards for the London Olympics.

The Government has had to call up 3,500 troops to meet the shortfall.

In The Observer article, the whistle-blower adds: " How many other misses have occurred?

"The missing of counterterrorism 'hits' is a huge thing but new recruits are not getting enough time to be taught."

His comments follow a report on Thursday into border staff being used at Heathrow airport for the Olympics.

John Vine, the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, concluded staff with only basic training and little immigration experience were being used.

Mr Vine said some staff "remained concerned about the potential risks of employing staff on the immigration control who had received only basic training and who had no immigration background/experience."

The Border Force is also rehiring ex-employees as it prepares to deal with more than 100,000 passengers a day during the busiest periods of the Olympics.

Chris Hobbs, a retired police officer who spent more than a third of his service working at Heathrow, Gatwick and in Jamaican airports, said: "There have been major problems with the UK Border Agency since October or November last year.

"What is astonishing perhaps is that the problem hasn't been remedied - so we're going into the Olympics with the border force in crisis.

"The border is very vulnerable, so that can't be good."

In a statement, a border agency spokesman said: "All staff being deployed will have the necessary security clearance and will have received the training required to operate effectively.

"Contingency staff will only be carrying out tasks for which they have been fully trained.

"Contingency staff will operate individually, but are supported by experienced border force officers at all times.

"If they have any concerns or questions they are told to escalate those concerns immediately."