Passports confiscated over fines

New measures could mean tougher fines for airlines

Greek airline Olympic Airways routinely confiscates the passports of ethnic minority passengers on its flights, the BBC has learned.

The airline argues it wants to cut down on the fines it faces for bringing asylum seekers into the UK.

It admitted the measures could be viewed as racist.

Asylum seekers arriving in the UK having destroyed their travel documents could be prosecuted under proposals outlined last month.

Fake documents

Olympic Airways confirmed it regularly carries out extra security checks on Chinese, Asian, Taiwanese and eastern European passengers.

The airline says by retaining the passports during the flight, they ensure they can be produced to immigration officials.

The BBC's Caroline Cheetham said the airline argues the measures are the only way they can stop asylum seekers boarding their flights with fake documents, destroying them during the flight and then arriving in the UK claiming asylum with no documentation.

Those who favour asylum policy being tightened say people traffickers tell those wanting to enter Britain to destroy their passports or travel documents.

Asylum seekers with no documentation can then choose where to say they are from, and know it is extremely hard to deport them from the UK without papers.

For every one passenger who arrives with no documentation, the airline says it is fined £2,000 because the airline cannot prove the documents were presented at check-in.

A consultation document unveiled last month, revealed plans to prosecute asylum seekers landing in the UK without proper documentation, as part of several new measures to crackdown on illegal immigration.

Onslaught

The proposals also include measures forcing airlines on certain routes to copy passengers' passports before they depart.

Others include restricting asylum seekers whose applications are rejected to a single appeal, and a new onslaught on unqualified legal advisers who "abuse" the system.

The proposals for a new asylum bill, expected to form part of the Queen's Speech next month, follow the Home Office's biggest asylum amnesty.

Last month the government announced that 15,000 asylum seekers and their families - an estimated 50,000 refugees - could live and work in Britain indefinitely because it has taken so long for their cases to go through the courts.