Andy, these are not "Remainer scare stories", it's really happening. What the customs officers are doing is asking people why they are coming to the UK and whether they have a return ticket. The wrong answer means they could end up in one of these detention centres. Matt has quoted the numbers and they have risen sharply compared to pre-Covid (and pre-Brexit) years, despite much lower volumes of travellers.They are trying to root out those coming here to look for jobs in the way they used to before 31st Jan 2021. They will ask the same questions of anyone whether an EU citizen or not but there seems to be some targetting going on - e.g. younger people of working age rather than older folk. Maybe someone knows more about their criteria than I do and can add to this?Bottom line - it is getting reported on the foreign press as well as in certain papers over here, it looks terrible, is doing our international reputation even more harm than Brexit itself has already done, and could of course provoke reciprocal action by countries whose citizens are most affected - eg Italy, Spain, France and even Germany.
Jonathan Callaway ● 1706d