The Home Office has been criticised for erecting “intimidating and hostile” posters in UK airports that warn arrivals that checks will be carried out on all arriving passengers “to keep out people who have no right to enter”.
A series of people took to social media this week to flag the signs spotted at Gatwick, Heathrow and Newcastle airports.
The posters say: “We carry out checks on 100 per cent of arriving passenger, to keep out people who have no right to enter the UK”.
Jake Painter, a musician with the group Captain SKA, said the signs serve “no other purpose than intimidation and hostility”. Posting on Twitter, he went on to criticise the language used, saying “this is the face of Brexit Britain. A shitty racist island with bad grammar.”
Just arrived in Gatwick to find this new poster at passport control. Really saddened and angry. Serves no other purpose than intimidation and hostility. Come on Britain. We are better than this. pic.twitter.com/8IU0KhkI9a
— Captain SKA (@CaptainSKA) October 5, 2018
Speaking to the i, Painter added: “I feel so sad and angry seeing this when coming back to the UK. This sign represents Tory Britain in it’s monochrome worst. Bleak, unwelcoming, uncaring and it serves no other purpose than that of hostility towards immigrants.
“The sign is strategically placed in passport control (where as a traveller it’s already too late to turn back) purely as a means of signifying Britain’s hostile environment. Horrible and with obvious nods to Trump.”
The poster comes months after the Windrush scandal and has been linked to the “hostile environment policy” towards immigrants brought in by Mrs May when she was Home Secretary.
A representative for Gatwick confirmed the poster was erected in arrival halls, but said the content of the sign was decided by the Home Office.
Several people have described the language used as worse than in the US post-Trump, where walls are being built to stop migrants entering the country and blanket bans on immigrants from Muslim countries have been put in place.