Airport luggage spies: How officials are rummaging through your bags without telling you

• Officials are allowed to search bags before they go on baggage carousel
• Two thirds of searchers turn up nothing and owners are never told
  
• Staff also found not seeking proper authorisation before searching bags
• Edinburgh staff said they would examine confidential medical records  
  

By JACK DOYLE

PUBLISHED: 21:48 GMT, 3 April 2014 | UPDATED: 22:05 GMT, 3 April 2014

Have you ever picked up your suitcase from the airport carousel and had the feeling that someone’s had a sneaky peek inside?

According to an official report, you could be right.

It seems that airport officials are rummaging through passengers’ luggage without telling them.

Under little-known powers designed to stop drugs, weapons and other contraband entering the country, customs staff can search bags at ports and airports without informing the owner.

But border staff have been discovered carrying out the searches without proper authorisation.

Some officials said they would read confidential legal and medical documents if they found them in luggage – despite it being against the law.

Officials can require passengers to open their luggage if they are stopped while walking through the customs channel. These searches take place in front of the passenger, who can see when items are being opened.

But covert luggage searches are carried out on inbound flights after items are taken off planes but before they are placed on the carousel for passengers to collect.

Details of the searches emerged in a report published yesterday by the Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, John Vine.

From April to September last year hundreds of searches were carried out at regional airports across Britain. It means that every year thousands such searches will take place in our airports.

In around one in three cases officials found suspect items, but in the remainder the luggage was simply repacked and returned to the passenger, who remained unaware it had ever been inspected.

Mr Vine found a worrying lack of consistent rules on how such searches should be conducted across airports.

FULL STORY: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2596433/Airport-luggage-spi...