In article , "Alan (in Brussels)"
writes
Thousands of passengers are being stopped in a secret operation using
tactics the police are specifically forbidden from deploying. Immigration
officers are stopping anyone they consider to look or sound foreign and
asking them to produce their papers to prove their right to British
residence.
[...]
The officer in charge said people were picked out for questioning if they
sounded foreign.

Is it me, or is there a major flaw in this: most people with a right to
British residence *won't carry* any such papers?

I can think of exactly one document I hold that can prove that right,
and that's my passport. After an unfortunate incident a few years ago, I
carry it with me most of the time, but I know I'm unusual in this -
certainly the rest of my family only carry them when going abroad.

So if my "foreign-looking" daughter decides to study Japanese A-level
(yes, her school does offer it) and to practice with one of her
classmates on a trip to the smoke, she could get arrested?!?

Immigration officer Emma Cromack said: "If you hear someone speaking a
language that's not European

I bet the average immigration officer doesn't know what most European
languages sound like. [How many are there? I lost count somewhere around
40, and I'm excluding things like Bengali that are spoken by many
Britons but are not traditionally counted.]

This country gets more like the old USSR or DDR every time I blink.

--
Clive D.W. Feather | Home:
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