I returned from Brussels airport yesterday, and all was going well with no delays.
At Passport control there were lots of open desks, and almost no queues.
I had my passport out ready and was intercepted by a member of staff and directed to one side.
All the free flowing ones were for EU only, and I was put in the the ‘other passports’ queue, which in itself is fair enough now U.K. has left.
The problem being that the queue was huge, and eventually I could see that there were only 2 members of staff, going painfully slowly.
I had arrived in plenty of time, so although uncomfortable, wasn’t in danger of missing my flight.
I became aware of some people around me getting very anxious. Their flight coming in had been delayed and the connecting flight was boarding. Some of them went back and spoke to the member of staff directing us. She would do nothing except to tell them to speak to the other passengers.
I didn’t want to extend my wait, it would have been unfair for them to miss their flight. I let several people through the tape barrier in front of me, as did others.
Unfortunately there were quite a lot of them, maybe 15 - 20. One young girl looked terrified, and was holding back, so a few of us opened up a route for her.
One man who had just joined the back of the queue then refused to let a man through, saying he had kids.
The man in front of me opened the tape barrier and let him through, which caused a huge argument with some women accompanying the man and child. I couldn’t understand most of it, but one of the other passengers was calling out for security staff. No one came.
Surely the staff should at least try to manage queues and not leave such things up to the discretion of other passengers, who themselves are already irritated at having a long wait.