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Concern over plan for military to fill in for striking Border Force staff
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This article is more than 1 month old
Concern over plan for military to fill in for
striking Border Force staff
This article is more than 1 month old
Exclusive: armed forces personnel to get less than a
week’s training under plan approved by Suella Braverman
Rajeev Syal
and Dan Sabbagh
Thu 10 Nov
2022 20.00 GMT
Hundreds of
military personnel will be trained to work as Border Force guards so they can
fill in for striking workers under plans signed off by Suella Braverman.
Members of
the armed services could be asked to work on the frontline at ports and
airports by the end of this month, Whitehall sources said. Defence sources said
they had received a request for help from the Home Office, which was being
evaluated.
It follows
a vote on Thursday in favour of industrial action by the PCS union, which
represents thousands of Border Force guards across the UK.
Under Home
Office plans, personnel will be given training of less than a week so they can
cover jobs at ports such as Dover and airports including Heathrow. Usual
minimum training would be three weeks for a Border Force guard.
They could
also be expected to process people coming across the Channel in small boats,
amid an expected increase over the next few weeks.
The plan
has angered Border Force guards, who say members of the armed forces will be
given inadequate training. It could also concern military top brass who have
previously questioned the use of the army and navy to fill in for civil
servants.
John
Spellar, the former armed forces minister and vice-chair of the Commons defence
select committee, said the government was treating the armed forces like a temp
agency.
“The
government has previously used them as the fourth emergency service and are now
using the military as a temporary employment agency. These are not jobs for
which their skills are suited, particularly at a time of an international
security emergency.
“Once again
our overstretched armed forces are being asked to cover up for gross
incompetence by Whitehall and government ministers,” he said.
Training
will begin within weeks, Whitehall sources have confirmed, and will last for
less than a week. Other training plans for Border Force officials will be
suspended while military personnel are trained instead.
Border
Force guards are usually given three weeks of training as a minimum before they
interact with the public. After the three weeks, they are given a mentor to
work alongside for up to a month to ensure they can work solo on a passport
desk.
While in training,
they learn how to process and interview passengers, identify victims of modern
slavery, spot forged documents, identify suspected trafficked children, and
learn how to question passengers.
Thousands
of PCS members in the Home Office, including Border Force officers, have voted
for industrial action after rejecting proposals for pay, jobs, redundancy terms
and pensions.
The union
said that unless “substantial proposals” were received from the government by
next Friday, it would agree a “programme of sustained industrial action”.
The plan to
train military personnel has prompted anger among union officials who say it is
“irresponsible” to shorten training time.
One union
official said: “This is a strike-busting move by a government that is supposed
to be coming up with a new offer. It is frankly despicable. It also means that
people will be given a few days’ training and then will be expected to deal
directly with asylum seekers and members of the public. It is not fair on the
military to rush them through training, and it is not fair on the public who
expect better.”
Reports
have claimed that Royal Navy officers have expressed concern at the way
resources have been diverted towards coping with small boat arrivals in the
Channel.
Ministers
fear that as many as 10,000 more people seeking asylum could reach the UK by
the end of the year. November has become the peak month because of migrant farm
workers moving north to the French beaches after the autumn harvest.
The
increase will put the asylum processing centre at Manston in Kent under new
pressure after the Home Office dispersed more than 2,800 people to hotels and
other accommodation from the “catastrophically overcrowded” site to reduce
numbers to 1,147.
The Public
and Commercial Services union balloted more than 150,000 government employees
at 214 departments across the country over whether to strike.
Publishing
the results of the ballot, the PCS union said 126 departments had passed the
threshold for strikes, including the Home Office and the Department for Work
and Pensions.
Strike
action would reach “into every corner of public life”, the union said, with
huge impact on jobcentres, passport offices and Border Force.
A Home
Office spokesperson said: “We are disappointed that the union has voted in
favour of industrial action. Our priority will always be to keep our citizens
safe and borders secure, and we will not compromise on this. As the public
would expect, we have plans in place to minimise potential disruption during
possible strike action, while still carrying out essential checks.”
A Ministry
of Defence spokesperson said: “We have received a request from the Home Office
and are considering it in line with military aid to the civil authorities
(Maca) principles. No decisions have been made yet.”
Just nine passengers detained at Heathrow during Border Force strike
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Just nine passengers detained at Heathrow during
Border Force strike
Figure compares with 189 during same three days of
2021, but detentions at Manchester airport rose slightly
Rajeev Syal
Sat 31 Dec
2022 07.00 GMT
The number
of passengers detained for further checks at the UK’s busiest airport plummeted
in the run-up to Christmas after the armed services were asked to cover for
striking Border Force staff, leaked figures show.
Just nine
people were stopped at passport control and held at Heathrow over three strike
days from 23 to 25 December, compared with 189 people over the same three days
in 2021 – a 95% drop.
The data
covers people initially stopped using IS81 forms and then detained for further
checks. The figures include people seeking asylum.
In
contrast, at Manchester airport, 27 passengers were stopped using the same
powers over the same three-day period this year, a slight increase on the 21
stopped over the same days last year. Nearly all of the 27 stopped this year
were asylum seekers, sources said.
The figures
have been leaked to the Guardian amid a growing row over the role of members of
the armed services policing UK borders as members of the PCS union strike over
pay and conditions.
Ministers
have denied claims that the UK’s borders were less secure when staffed by
members of the armed forces, after the Guardian disclosed that substitute staff
received just five days of training and do not have the powers to detain those
they suspect of criminal activity.
Ben
Wallace, the defence secretary, said on a visit to Manchester airport on
Thursday: “The claim is just pure propaganda put out by the unions. That’s not
the case. I witnessed it today. And I am the former security minister, so I
know exactly how the borders work.”
But the PCS
general secretary, Mark Serwotka, said on Friday that the figures showed
otherwise.
“Ben
Wallace yesterday accused us of propaganda when we warned passengers were being
waved through passport control because the military wasn’t stopping them. These
figures prove we were telling the truth,” he said.
“For a
government that obsesses about security, that just 5% of the usual stops were
carried out raises serious concerns about our borders. The military is no
substitute for highly trained, experienced Border Force professionals who are
trained to spot victims of people trafficking and those who are barred from
entering the country.”
The latest
strike by more than 1,000 border staff at six airports – Heathrow, Gatwick,
Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester and Glasgow – is due to end at 7am on Saturday.
There have
been few delays for passengers as hundreds of military personnel and civil servants
were brought in to cover striking workers. Many passengers cleared passport
control in less than five minutes.
The new
figures apply to people who have been stopped, even for a few minutes, using
IS81 forms and then detained for further checks.
An IS81
form gives immigration officers the authority to detain people while they
undertake further inquiries, according to Home Office documents. Many asylum
seekers hand themselves in to border guards on arrival.
Soldiers,
sailors and civil servants filling in for Border force guards are not allowed
to issue IS81 forms because they have not received sufficient training. A
Border Force guard who continues to work through the strike must instead
authorise the form.
The PCS has
threatened to seek legal action if evidence is found that new arrivals in the
UK are being waved through without proper checks.
Home
secretary Suella Braverman, whose plans to train members of the armed forces to
cover for striking border force workers have been criticised by unions as a
‘despicable strike-breaking move’.
Suella
Braverman, the home secretary, has repeatedly said her first responsibility is
the security of the nation.
A Home
Office spokesperson said: “Border Force’s number one priority is to maintain a
secure border and we have not compromised on this. The Guardian’s own figures
show more people have been detained further at Manchester airport this year
compared to last year.
“Non-striking
Border Force staff, with the full range of appropriate powers, are continuing
to complete their vital roles, including stopping and detaining passengers
where appropriate, supported by military personnel and civil servant
volunteers.”
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