Yesterday, I flew back from a fantastic trip to Singapore on QF292.
Upon landing in SYD, we were greeted with the infamous Passport Control touchscreens and a huge queue.
While in the queue, there was a brief moment where a touchscreen was vacant as a passenger had just left and the next passenger was heading to the screen. A passing Border Force officer decided to admonish the queue by yelling out aggressively, ‘Why is no one using that screen?’. When someone pointed out a passenger was heading to the screen, the officer disappeared from the area.
Wouldn’t the more appropriate solution be to have an officer at the front of the queue directing passengers to the next available screen. If Woolies and Coles can do this with self serve checkout, surely Border Force can do this with passport control screens.
After I used the screen I got what I thought was the printout - a copy of the passport photo that’s in my passport. Being a first time overseas traveller, I assumed this was all that needed to be printed out and proceeded to the gates and luggage collection.
I had gotten some TWG tea at Changi, and was advised by the sales rep to declare it, so I went down the declaration line where I was greeted by the Border Force officer directing passengers to the relevant lines. I show him my passport and receipt where he begins berating me for not providing him with the complete receipt - pretty much accusing me of doing this deliberately before aggressively ordering me down line 1.
I questioned this, asking why the machine would do this, and with a ‘Don’t ask question’s’ attitude barked back ‘Someone will look into this later’.
By now I’m very much biting my tongue not wanting to bite back but proceed to line 1, and decide to try humorously saying, ‘Oh the machine malfunctioned’ to the officers at line 1, who to their credit, were very kind. I mentioned the behaviour of the previous officer to them, and while they seemed indifferent to the behaviour of this officer, one officer could see I was distressed by what happened and had a bit of a conversation about the holiday while the other officer did what they needed to do to check my details.
A couple of moments later, they gave me the all clear and off to the next officer to declare the tea, and some wooden chopsticks I’d also purchased. The officers attitude was ‘Why are you bothering me with this’ before giving me the all clear to exit.
I’ve since lodged a formal complaint against the officer that berated me, but it got me thinking if Border Force officers do this deliberately to provoke people to be aggressive towards them.
I know there’s processes and what not to go through, but berating, abusing and provoking passengers because of things outside of their control is simply not acceptable. In the above example, the officer simply could’ve have said, ‘Oh looks like the machine has malfunctioned. I’m sorry about that. Just head down line 1 and they’ll sort you out’.
And the attitude with declaring things seems to be more along the lines of disappointment people are declaring items as it means they don’t get to interrogate a passenger’s luggage for not declaring something.
It just makes me wonder if this is more a deliberate ploy by officers to provoke passengers into lashing out, or if there’s such a bad culture at Border Force officers know they can mistreat passengers and get away with it.
Upon landing in SYD, we were greeted with the infamous Passport Control touchscreens and a huge queue.
While in the queue, there was a brief moment where a touchscreen was vacant as a passenger had just left and the next passenger was heading to the screen. A passing Border Force officer decided to admonish the queue by yelling out aggressively, ‘Why is no one using that screen?’. When someone pointed out a passenger was heading to the screen, the officer disappeared from the area.
Wouldn’t the more appropriate solution be to have an officer at the front of the queue directing passengers to the next available screen. If Woolies and Coles can do this with self serve checkout, surely Border Force can do this with passport control screens.
After I used the screen I got what I thought was the printout - a copy of the passport photo that’s in my passport. Being a first time overseas traveller, I assumed this was all that needed to be printed out and proceeded to the gates and luggage collection.
I had gotten some TWG tea at Changi, and was advised by the sales rep to declare it, so I went down the declaration line where I was greeted by the Border Force officer directing passengers to the relevant lines. I show him my passport and receipt where he begins berating me for not providing him with the complete receipt - pretty much accusing me of doing this deliberately before aggressively ordering me down line 1.
I questioned this, asking why the machine would do this, and with a ‘Don’t ask question’s’ attitude barked back ‘Someone will look into this later’.
By now I’m very much biting my tongue not wanting to bite back but proceed to line 1, and decide to try humorously saying, ‘Oh the machine malfunctioned’ to the officers at line 1, who to their credit, were very kind. I mentioned the behaviour of the previous officer to them, and while they seemed indifferent to the behaviour of this officer, one officer could see I was distressed by what happened and had a bit of a conversation about the holiday while the other officer did what they needed to do to check my details.
A couple of moments later, they gave me the all clear and off to the next officer to declare the tea, and some wooden chopsticks I’d also purchased. The officers attitude was ‘Why are you bothering me with this’ before giving me the all clear to exit.
I’ve since lodged a formal complaint against the officer that berated me, but it got me thinking if Border Force officers do this deliberately to provoke people to be aggressive towards them.
I know there’s processes and what not to go through, but berating, abusing and provoking passengers because of things outside of their control is simply not acceptable. In the above example, the officer simply could’ve have said, ‘Oh looks like the machine has malfunctioned. I’m sorry about that. Just head down line 1 and they’ll sort you out’.
And the attitude with declaring things seems to be more along the lines of disappointment people are declaring items as it means they don’t get to interrogate a passenger’s luggage for not declaring something.
It just makes me wonder if this is more a deliberate ploy by officers to provoke passengers into lashing out, or if there’s such a bad culture at Border Force officers know they can mistreat passengers and get away with it.
