Anyone watch ‘border control’ themed daytime tv programmes?

[DeluluTaylor]

You know there’s always loads of people trying to bring fried prawns, jellied pigs feet, seeds, uncooked lamb into Australia/ New Zealand shown on these programmes?
Why??
Is there a black market, do they just forget it’s there or do they think it won’t be found? I can never work out if it’s stupidity or hubris.

No judgement on anyone eating those foods, O eat some pretty odd stuff, but there is about a billion signs and the fines are huge!! £2000 for two cold burgers!!
I literally wouldn’t be able to afford the fines, they’d have to fly me home again, all over some dried quail eggs…,

Exactly!! The volume of stuff for a two week holiday 😂

And they’re still denying it even as the zip is peeled back and the chicken foot is peeking out of the side of the case 🙄

That made me lol

the women seem worse at prolonging the coughing up the dollars

I’m sure I’ve see one of them have breathing problems resulting in a wheelchair 🦽 being wheeled out 😂😂😂

I think I’ve seen that exact one too 😂

Oh I love these programmes too....all the indignation and drama....I remember once watching an episode of, I think it was Border Control....this guy from somewhere in Africa was flying back to either New Zealand or Australia and he was making a massive fuss over the fact that he wasn't allowed to bring in "the foods of his home" and "how will I feed my family!?" etc etc and the border officer was like "mate, this is flour and other basic cooking ingredients that you're able to buy over here anyway, so what's the problem?"

It turned out he was actually attempting to smuggle an absolute ton of drugs into the country under the food and potentially if he'd just shut up and let them destroy it, maybe he could have gotten away with a fine or something if he was lucky, but nope, he had to protest and cause a disproportionate amount of fuss about not being able to bring his "food" into the country and I think he got quite a deservedly serious punishment for what he'd done.

I always wonder why individuals are allowed to bring any food at all. It would be much simpler

I’ve been ill this week and it’s been my guilty pleasure when I’m having little naps on the sofa while I can. There was one the other day with a woman with huge polystyrene boxes absolutely packed full of food. I’m guessing she declared it but still had stuff that wasn’t allowed as there’s surely no way she had those without declaring any food at all (I missed that bit when I was sleeping).

The only ones I feel sorry for are the students who are properly clueless as to stuff in their bags, I’m guessing parents packing them and adding some “lovely home cooked food” or the likes as a treat, but then I guess they do have to say that they’ve packed their bags themselves and have likely lied about that one!

The programmes are a guilty pleasure for me too.

I was so proud when my husband and I were pulled over on entry to New Zealand because I had 'admitted' to having walking boots in the luggage and when the Customs person said she'd never seen such clean boots. I said I'd had my husband out in the back garden scrubbing them the day before I packed them 🤣

I am addicted to these. I LOVE the New Zealand immigration officer, James and can’t stand patronising Andrea in the Australian one. People are unbelievable.

Am Australian and can say confidently the vast majority of culprits are a mix of arrogant and stupid. Small minority make an innocent mistake, but most don't. Most think they are smart enough not to get caught (they aren't) and arrogant enough to think essentially "the food from my home country is great, customs is being stupid/racist for suggesting its a biosecurity risk. Ridiculous! I know better than them and that my country's food is awesome, therefore I feel right in ignoring their stupid laws. If this food is good food is my country for my people, why is it not good enough for Australian people???" They don't understand or aren't intelligent enough to comprehend that its not an issue of the food itself being good or bad food, but rather that particular food could have pathogens not native to Australia. We don't give a fuck what you want to eat and a lot of the things they try and bring can be bought in Australia anyway, you just need to purchase the products from sources that can be traced and confirmed to be pathogen free etc. I'm sure a lot of the food they try and smuggle in is actually fine but as we can't prove it at border security, it isn't a risk we can take. I'm sure a lot of it is a cost thing eg its cheaper to buy XYZ ingredient in your home country rather than the imported (legal) version in Australia

I don't have much sympathy tbh especially as majority of the stuff can be bought in Australia anyway but they just want to save a few $$. I have lived in many different countries and often missed things etc or find it a bit annoying that if I want to get a certain thing from home I have to go way out of my way to find a specific shop that sells it, but that's just part of living in another country. My dad lives in Europe and often brings home jars of mincemeat in his suitcase after visiting the UK, as that's very difficult to find where he lives, but mincemeat isn't illegal to import where he lives 😂

My ex partner once confessed to me halfway across the Atlantic that his hold luggage was full of haggis. I was on a US student visa at the time and went as ballistic as it’s possible to go at 38,000 ft.

Because there is objectively no risk attached to my bringing home an Anton Berg alcoholic chocolate Advent calendar for my mum, or my children having some oreos in their Trunki.

They sensibly allow you to bring some kinds of packaged foods, particularly things like biscuits and chocs.

They ask you very plainly DO YOU HAVE ANY FOOD when you are showing your passports, and so long as you explain what it is that you have, you can't go wrong. The only time they were concerned was when I had some fruitcake (fruit is banned), but once they had checked to see it was all cooked and packaged, they were happy for me to bring it in. Which pleased my mother. Christmas cakes were about a fifth the price in England as they were in Australia at the time.

I love those programmes and travel to Australia fairly regularly as my ds1 lives there, and I'm always slightly disappointed that I've never got to witness any food smugglers being caught in person yet!

However... had an interesting experience on Thursday flying home from Oz... we were a group of 6 adults and two tiny children leaving Australia. Son in Law's bag got stopped. They insisted they had seen a knife on the scanner. SIL said nope, nothing in there They put it thorugh the scanner muliple times, and emptied everything, were literally about to rip the lining apart when DD2 spotted a hidden zip section under the bottom; yep a tiny camping knife!!!

Turns out the bag was last used about 10 years ago at Reading festival and it's been there ever since! Security were actually pretty nice about it (I think the fact SIL was carrying a baby, helped!)

Meant to add... that bag had been through Heathrow, Singapore and Australia security once already and no one else had spotted it!!!!!

These programmes are crazily funny - the look of shock when 3 roasted ducks are discovered in their underwear!! I always wonder how many people make themselves seriously ill eating those meat products that have sat unrefrigerated for hours in their luggage.

There is also one with Canadian Border control - especially episodes that focus on the land crossing between the Canada and the US with crazy Americans who seem to have no idea that Canada is a totally different country, have filled their vehicles with guns and ammo for a trip to Alaska and are outraged and demand their second amendment rights when calm Canadian border officers confiscate the weapons.

Yes the fines are large and I wouldn’t.

But I’ve lived in three countries and travelled in about 50. And there were times, in yurts on the steppe, on the beach in Central America, in a hut in Africa, where a hobnob and a cup of decent tea, I would have paid two grand.

People I know have tried it on with haggis, and other banned foods.

Food is love, it’s culture, it’s home. It might be chicken feet to you but it’s a cup of tea and a hobnob to them.

I sometimes think these travellers don’t realise that the supermarket has been invented in NZ/Oz!

On my first trip to NZ around 15-20 years ago now I had worn hiking boots that I'd worn to a farm a few days prior. They gave them such a good clean I've been tempted on future trips to pretend I'd been at a farm just to get them my boots cleaned 😁

and can never understand why they don’t get to keep the food if they pay the fine

Sorry I don't understand who you think should get to keep the food? The people being caught can't obviously because they are coming into Australia/NZ so if they kept the food they'd be bringing it into the country?

I always enjoy the mail centre section of those programmes. Because there's no person present with the contraband they can just go straight in with the drilling and chopping. It's amazing how inventive the smugglers are!

Place marking so I remember to watch again. I usually get sucked into Police Interceptors instead.

Have you seen the one about the Mexico border? Cars packed full of drugs in the oddest places. Sometimes they're having to pull the cars apart to find them!

I only really like the drug-related ones. Love seeing the absolute denials and then watching them being taken away in handcuffs and the words come up about where the drugs were found and how much it was worth. The unlawful entry and food-related segments are pretty boring.
The food ones where Andrea is screeching about them wrongly ticking the boxes on the card sometimes makes me wonder whether the wording on the card is an accurate translation. So many offenders think that the wording means food that is actually cooked or just meat.

Oh yes the mail room is great, the kids toys and boxes of sweets are full to bursting !

Same here!!! Some really creative ways to get drugs into the country and I love watching them weigh 100 cans of soup to make sure the weight matches what the can should weigh 🤣

And there’s something very satisfying about watching the liquid turn pink or blue in the little sachets when they add the powder to it in order to see if it’s cocaine or heroin 🤣 (or usually ephedrine)

It always bemuses me though when the suitcases are going through the x-ray machines and the images shows the carcasses of dead animals tucked away amongst the shirts and trousers??!!! How do people think they’re going to get away with it?!

Name of programme and channel if you can remember please ☺️