To ask a dumb question about airport customs in UK

[Dreamscared]

When all those border control programs are on TV there are loads of customs people checking for contraband, foods, gifts over value etc.

When we passed through Manchester yesterday there were three tunnels alongside each other, nothing to declare and red channel. But no staff at all just those clear corridors with an automatic door at each side.

Are there people monitoring it somewhere in a room or else surely people can just walk through.

I took my Mum's case through as it was heavy for her and it alarmed and shut me in but then opened and no one came. (I was going EU to UK and had nothing to declare.

A lot of the searches are intelligence led. So yes, kind of monitored from a room.

I don't know for certain but watching some of those programmes, the luggage appears to be passed through a machine which shows the contents, so they can see if there are bottles or multiple packs of cigs or prohibited items before a suitcase reaches the carousel. Plus I think they rely on intelligence from other countries and tend to know when it is more prevalent for passengers to be carrying eg drugs or other contraband from some countries.

Thank you!

My friend told me the corridors had scanners/ xrays in like the body scanners at security

I've always wondered this too! A couple of times I've seen staff next to the lanes and doing spot checks - my dad got picked up on it once. But the vast majority of times there's nobody there.

Yeh it's scanned when you check it in definately.
The custom corridors are after the carousel.

They target certain flights. A flight coming in from the Caribbean will be higher risk than one from Canada. They also sometimes put a sniffer dog round the luggage between it being taken of the plane and it appearing on the belt so if anything is detected, they can send a message saying to stop whoever picks up the green bag with an orange handle as the dog has indicated on it. Or the third option is that they know exactly who they're looking for based on unusual patterns of travel - people who buy tickets just hours before departure with cash and are flying a long distance to stay a couple of days, or people who fly the same route more often than would be expected.

Thanks.
Now I want to know why it alarmed and shut on me then let me go

My Mum and her bloody kettle!

Never been stopped in UK, but landing in Bahrain DH got a labels added to his bag at some point between bag drop off in UK, mainland Europe transfer and baggage reclaim in Bahrain. As he went (truthfully) through the green channel, he was stopped, at that one bag (of his 2) was searched.

Also they only staff the red & nothing to declare channels when non EU flights come in. If it's only EU flights everyone should go through the blue (for now!) and it's monitored remotely

There are no hidden body scanners in the corridor. What nonsense.

I always wondered why customs was always empty too. Once, when I was walking through, I saw someone getting searched and the Customs Officer pulled out a huge bag of brown powder from the suitcase. Clearly, the searches are rarely random.

Nobody said there were hidden body scanners. Re-read the thread?

After baggage reclaim and before the exit you walk through the "channels"
do it MUCH more slowly next time and you'll realise that there is one way glass all along there - the officers are behind it
and cameras everywhere - with out of sight officers watching them
and if there is a bored looking officer at a table, he'll have a dog at his feet
the UK's approach to customs seems very low key but its pretty effective
the US on the other hand is high profile but useless

The customs staff are all on the passport desks. Funds are way down because of it but management can't see the correlation.

The OP did UnHomme or rather her friend told her they did.

Where I live, in a sand-pit, everyone's baggage is screened automatically on our return to the country, before going through customs at arrivals. Suspicious bags are tagged by security so that when you leave the baggage hall, an alarm in the form of a red light the customs officers can see as you go through one of the exit doors goes off and you will be stopped and your baggage searched.

OuaisMaisBon possibly the same sand pit I lived in. My friend flies for one of the major airlines and said a member of cabin crew had her bagged tagged because of something she had in there and shouldn't have. She got other crew members to crowd around her while she tried to remove whatever it was that was marking her bag.
Unfortunately she was caught and got in trouble for it.

Should say "my friend flies for a major airline there "

Happened - I'm saying nowt.