"Language testing" to travel on airline

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/ ... story.html

Aer Lingus have backed down, admitting that their language tests were supplied by the UK Borders Agency and saying that they are immediately suspending their use on passengers.

The tests (according to our mole in UKBA) were never intended for frontline use by check-in staff, especially untrained monkeys.

Everything in this thread is predicated on the issue that the Greek passport was legitimately issued.

While I don't doubt that it was in this particular case, the reality is that the Greek passport is the most porous entry document within the EU due to poor administration. The Greek Passport is subject to an enormous amout of photsubstitution (although the new series of passports issued from 2006 on has curtailed that), improper issuance (an ongoing challenge, particularly at Greek missions abroad) and imposters.

(Ironically, the Irish passport is the second most porous entry document to Europe, but not to to improper issuance and use, but rather due to loose nationality law).

Not only must an airline verify that a document is genuine (a realtively simple task), it must also verify that the person presenting it is the legitimate holder of that document (a more difficult exercise). An airline is equally liable for an imposter or the bearer of an improperly issued document as it is for the holder of an altered or counterfeit document.

For better or worse, governments have downloaded responsibility to common carriers to enforce immigration documentation. They are not experts, but they are the front line, and the imposition of fines gives them a financial interest that is not shared by the countries in which passengers seek to board (too often immigration officials are perfectly happy to let imposters through exit controls, and simply pass the problem on to another country).

Here she is on Sky News (in Greek, but it is a great 3m18s segment) - they pulled out all the stops with the photos of the UKBA tests, library shots of vintage Aer Lingus planes and the whole caboodle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbCmOPKueI8

Amazingly, she is at home in Cork on the laptop using Skype and they are in the Sky News studio in Athens, which is like absolute magic. I love technology when it works.

Watched the clip. Excellent work - quite astonished, really. That lass has it made.

It's also worth noting that there is a five-page thread on P.ie now.

An end to the personal element of this incident, but opening up a whole new set of questions, Aer Lingus have issued a written apology confirming that there was no issue with the passenger or with the passports, and revoking the policy "for customers holding Greek passports" - presumably it stays in place for other customers.