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The police officer said not all airlines carried out checks.
The police officer said not all airlines carried out checks. Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA
The police officer said not all airlines carried out checks. Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA

Watch lists don't always stop people leaving UK, police officer says

This article is more than 8 years old

Officer tells judge in forced marriage protection case that border system is compromised by airlines not doing checks

Border alert systems designed to prevent people on police watch lists from fleeing the UK are “compromised” and cannot be trusted to catch offenders, a police officer has told a high court judge.

Placing people’s names on a “watch list” or on the police national computer did not guarantee they would be stopped, the officer told Mr Justice MacDonald.

She added that not all airlines carried out checks, particularly on tickets purchased shortly before travel, and that people could fly to another European country “for onward travel” without their passports being checked.

Details of the officer’s concerns have emerged in a ruling by the judge following a hearing in the family division of the high court in London.

MacDonald did not name the officer or give her rank, but indicated she had been “in charge” of a case he was analysing.

Police and social workers had intervened after discovering that a nine-year-old girl could be in danger of being taken to Afghanistan to marry an 18-year-old man, the judge said.

The girl’s mother had told social services staff that her father was planning the trip, MacDonald had been told.

Another judge had made both parents the subject of forced marriage protection orders.

MacDonald said the girl had been temporarily taken into local authority care in the wake of her mother’s allegation – and he had analysed the latest stage of family court proceedings launched by social services bosses.

He said the police officer had told him that a forced marriage protection order, which would lead to the girl’s name being placed on a port alert system, was not necessarily enough to prevent her being taken out of the UK.

She had said: “In my professional experience, having subjects circulated on police national computer and/or placed on the watch list does not guarantee that they will be stopped when leaving or entering the UK.”

MacDonald added: “The officer [had said] that the port alert system is compromised by the fact that not all airlines carry out checks, particularly if tickets are purchased close to the date of travel, and that it is possible to travel to another European country for onward travel without passport checks being undertaken.

“The officer [had said] that she has personal experience of individuals being able to leave the country notwithstanding a port alert being in place.”

MacDonald did not identify the family involved
, but he said they were of Afghan heritage and indicated they lived in London.

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