‘Shocking’ security lapses at London City Airport revealed

High-risk private flights are being cleared by Border Force without proper checks at London City Airport in “shocking” security failures at the border, the former immigration inspector has warned.

In a new report, David Neal identified problems at a “local, regional and national level” that need to be addressed by the Home Office as a “matter of urgency”.

In a separate assessment of migrants working in the social care sector, he said ministers had vastly underestimated demand for visas and warned measures to protect those at risk of exploitation had been “totally inadequate”.

In one instance, he said 275 certificates of sponsorship were granted to a care home that did not exist. 

In another, 1,234 certificates were given to a company that said it had only four employees when granted a licence.

The two reports published on Tuesday complete the trove of 15 documents that the former inspector had accused the Home Office of suppressing when he was sacked for “breaching the terms of his appointment” by disclosing “unauthorised” information on border security to the media.

He claimed he was fired “for doing my job” of unveiling “inconvenient” truths about the failings of the system.

In his report on London City Airport, Mr Neal said he identified “a significant risk to security at the border”.

He was looking specifically at general aviation, defined as any civil flight not operating to a specific and published schedule. In particular, he said it was “shocking” to find that many high-risk flights were being cleared remotely, when guidance designed to keep the country safe dictates that they should be met with Border Force staff, except in exceptional circumstances.

‘Staff missed targets’

The report indicated that staff missed targets on the number of flights they were supposed to check in person.

However, the scale of the problem was unclear as the document was heavily redacted. 

A Home Office spokesman said some information had been removed for “national security reasons”.

When challenged by inspectors, Border Force staff said they only cleared high-risk flights remotely when passengers met certain criteria, which were redacted in the report, and when the risk was flagged up “as a result of the purpose of the passenger’s visit and duration of stay being unknown”.

But Mr Neal stressed that the guidance was clear that “flights assessed as high risk should be met, regardless of the reason for the risk rating, unless exceptional circumstances apply”.

On the handling of both high and low-risk flights, he said: “This is shocking and something is clearly very wrong.”

Phil Douglas, the Border Force director general, said he had told Mr Neal that some of the details in the City assessment were “factually inaccurate” and insisted security checks were carried out on “all general aviation arrivals”.

In his second report, Mr Neal was heavily critical of the Government’s handling of migrants working in social care.

He said: “Fundamentally, the Home Office selected a route that was designed for a largely compliant sector and applied it to a high-risk area – migration into an atomised and poorly paid sector is miles away from the recruitment of highly skilled workers being sponsored by multinational corporations. 

“This should have been obvious to Home Office policymakers.

“The net effect of these mistakes is that the Home Office created a system that invited large numbers of low-skilled workers to this country who are at risk from exploitation. 

“Moreover, its control measures to mitigate the risk were totally inadequate.”

‘These reports are scandalous’

Yvette Cooper, Labour’s shadow home secretary, said: “These inspection reports are scandalous. 

“They expose a Conservative government which has lost control of our borders and our border security.

“From allowing high security risk flights to swan into the country with zero in-person checks, despite risks from drugs, guns and people smuggling, through to rampant labour exploitation in the social care visa.”

Commenting on the City report, Mr Douglas said: “We will never compromise on border security and carry out robust security checks on those arriving into the UK, including both scheduled and notified general aviation flights.

“As I previously explained to Mr Neal, some of the information in this report is factually inaccurate. 

“Border security checks were carried out on all general aviation arrivals at London City Airport.”

On the social care report, a Home Office spokesman said: “We have already intervened to stop the flow of overseas care workers entering the UK where there is no genuine role for them to undertake, and taken robust action against businesses which are committing labour exploitation.

“We do not tolerate illegal activity in the labour market and we will continue to revoke licences from those who abuse the system.”