Ministers urge Heathrow to dedicate terminal for ‘red list’ arrivals

Ministers have urged Heathrow airport to dedicate a terminal to processing passengers arriving from “red list” countries, amid fears that the number of people coming from India could swell and create a more dangerous environment for Covid variants to spread. The Home Office has suggested Terminal 4 be used to separate those who have travelled from places where entry is banned for all apart from UK citizens and residents, and avoid them mixing with people coming from safer countries. Additional Border Force staff would also be provided to help deal with incoming passengers. India’s addition to the red list from 4am on Friday due to significantly rising case numbers and a new variant has prompted fears in Whitehall about queues in the arrival halls at UK airports, as people wait to have their passport and other documents including passenger locator forms and proof of negative test results checked manually. E-gates are still shut, significantly slowing the rate at which Border Force staff can process passengers. A government source said while lots of effort was going into reopening them, plans to bundle the extra paperwork required because of the pandemic into a digital document may not be ready for 17 May – the earliest that international travel could resume again.<br/>