Tech Glitch Causes Long Delays At UK Airports

Passengers flying back to the UK from holidays today could face lengthy delays due to IT problems affecting passport control.

The IT glitches are affecting UK Border Force computers and have led to travel disruptions at several airports across the country.

Extra border control staff members have been brought in to try to reduce the lengthy lines.

Heathrow, Gatwick, Birmingham and Manchester are among the airports hit by the problems.

Passengers have reported isolated fights breaking out as frustration boiled over in long queues late on Wednesday.

The computer problem mostly affects passengers trying to enter the country and is having a particular impact on non-EU airline customers.

The scuffles apparently broke out over accusations of queue jumping.

Kay Perry, flying to the UK from Majorca, told Sky News: "We joined the queues at Gatwick's south terminal which actually extended out of the passport control room, up the stairs and along the corridors.

Luggage piled up at Gatwick Airport after the IT glitch

"We had people merging from the north and south terminal. Nobody really knew where they were meant to join the queues so fights started to break out."

Passport scanners were not working and staff manually checked each passport. The problem also affected e-passports.

Chris Hyland, a 32-year-old company director from Islington, north London, said international passengers at Gatwick had been told to expect a wait of up to four hours.

He said: "We landed from Geneva at 5.20pm but it took until 6.40pm for us to get through passport control.

"It's an absolute nightmare. We've been told there is an IT failure but that's it. You would have thought there would be a back-up plan."

A Government spokesman said: "We are currently experiencing temporary IT problems which may add to the time taken to conduct passport checks.

"We are working to rectify this issue and are providing extra staff to get passengers through the controls as quickly as possible. Our priority remains security of the border.

"We apologise for any additional time this adds to passengers' journeys."

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