Passengers at Heathrow Airport reported scenes of chaos after having to wait in queues for more than four hours.
Overstretched workers were heard declaring to passengers: ‘We have not got any more staff!’ after arrivals complained about the long wait.
The chaos comes days before the UK is set to impose strict hotel quarantine measures to citizens entering the country from ‘red list’ areas.
Pictures show a line of clearly frustrated arrivals in dozens of rows, while some are sat on the floor and take off their masks.
Dylan Carter, 23, whose girlfriend was coming back from Ukraine, told MailOnline: ‘It’s absolute bedlam. They’ve been stuck in queues for four hours. Officers have been shouting at the crowds saying things like, “You chose to travel.”
He said his girlfriend landed at Terminal 2 at 11am and only eventually passed through security at around 5pm. Dylan suggested the long wait may be due to passengers attempting to escape tough hotel quarantine measures coming in for travellers next week.
A video shows an irritated border guard lose his patience with arrivals asking about the long queues.
‘We have not got any more staff! We have staff isolating, we have staff off with Covid and we have had two staff die with Covid! ‘So forgive us for not being understanding!’
Another clip shows his colleague telling someone else: ‘It’s taking anything to 30 minutes to deal with one single person. Unfortunately, border force staff are not immune to Covid either so we… have to work in bubbles.”
The chaos comes as British residents returning from any of the 33 countries on the UK’s ‘red-list’ from Monday must quarantine in a hotel for 10 days. They must pay £1,750 to stay in a Government-approved location for that time period and if they break the rules face a fine up to of £10,000 or a decade in prison.
