Gavin Rodgers

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pic shows: Chaos queues at Luton airport.<br />
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Families and even babies queued for more than two hours at Luton airport late on Tuesday night.<br />
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Several planes landed at once and people were squashed like cattle in airport corridors a hundred metres from passport control.<br />
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Despite signs and announcements to observe social distancing it was impossible in the queues.<br />
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Many ignored it anyway for fear of losing their place in the standstill queue after long journeys from the continent.<br />
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On woman Bernadette Rodgers landed at 9.20 pm on an easyJet flight from Malaga and didn’t get through passports until 11.15.<br />
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“It was mayhem. Babies were crying and parents struggling to deal with tired children.<br />
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“There was no distancing hardly. It was difficult to do so.<br />
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“No staff gave any announcements about how far you were front the passport gate. <br />
“when three airport workers in hi vis jackets marched through with a disabled passenger people begged for information.<br />
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“\they just shrugged and ignored people<br />
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“Eventually a security guard came from the front fearing people were getting angry. <br />
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“shortly after that a woman started handing out bottles of water to people who were wilting. <br />
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“Once in the passport hall it was like cattle going to slaughter with a long snake of plastic partitions.<br />
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“Finally the passport staff gave up trying to check everyone’s passenger locator forms, pre arrival covid tests and day two bookings.<br />
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“They just pushed half the people through the automated passport gates without checking anything.<br />
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“I spent hours filling in pages long forms and good money on tests both sides of the border. But nobody checked mine. <br />
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“The whole thing was  shambles. No wonder covid cases are rising with people coming back from abroad. We were squashed together like sardines for two hours.<br />
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“Its a danger to travellers’ health. But as usual the staff told you nothing and for a long time didn’t seem to care.”<br />
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picture by Gavin Rodgers/ Pixel8000<br />
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