Staff at Heathrow Aiport faced a “mutiny” as security staff had to stop angry passengers “leaping over” malfunctioning passport control barriers.
Passengers arriving in London following an indirect flight from Dubai were forced to queue for hours, leading to chaotic scenes.
Some passengers were furious as a result of the wait, so decided to climb the barriers to skip passport control, but they were tackled and detained by Border Force officers.
The Home Office has since confirmed that two people “attempted to evade being checked in”, however they were “immediately” stopped by officials.
Due to the Covid restrictions, a ban on direct flights from Dubai has been enforced last week, with many people hurrying back to the UK, although some passengers were forced to take indirect flights.
Despite the lockdown in the UK, the Government has not closed the country’s borders, which means Heathrow is still receiving a large number of passengers from outside the UK on a daily basis.
All passengers arriving have to endure a fourteen-day isolation period before being able to enter the country.
Those arriving from Dubai were “fed up”, with the resulting turmoil described by eye-witness Mr Raza as “what happens when you push people too far”.
Unless the borders are closed, there will continue to be streams of people attempting to enter the country.
A Heathrow spokesperson said: “Long queues at the border should not be a surprise.”
It has been suggested that there may be further cases of passenger disorder, should the speed of the arrivals process not improve.
