Hi everyone!
Time for my fourth and final blog. I thought i would write about the experience of my final day with the UK Border Agency. My behind the scenes tour of Heathrow Airport on June 15th was another key PR experience that enabled me to critically reflect on my PR theory learnt at university.
I was able to participate on the tour to understand how the Border Force uses it as a critical PR tool for journalists. Philip Astle, Director of Border Force spent a day taking me between terminals, explaining the processes and functions of both immigration and customs staff in order to better my understanding of the role of Border Force. At Terminal 3 I sat on the Immigration Desk, shadowing an Immigration Officer as he stamped passports and checked visas of Pakistani nationals disembarking from a flight. I was taken to the forgery room, where a forgery expert explained how officers are trained to look for specific features that suggest forged documents.
Time for my fourth and final blog. I thought i would write about the experience of my final day with the UK Border Agency. My behind the scenes tour of Heathrow Airport on June 15th was another key PR experience that enabled me to critically reflect on my PR theory learnt at university.
I was able to participate on the tour to understand how the Border Force uses it as a critical PR tool for journalists. Philip Astle, Director of Border Force spent a day taking me between terminals, explaining the processes and functions of both immigration and customs staff in order to better my understanding of the role of Border Force. At Terminal 3 I sat on the Immigration Desk, shadowing an Immigration Officer as he stamped passports and checked visas of Pakistani nationals disembarking from a flight. I was taken to the forgery room, where a forgery expert explained how officers are trained to look for specific features that suggest forged documents.
I witnessed a Romanian man being not only body scanned for internal cocaine packages, but also having his luggage examined by the Cash Team who were trying to ascertain whether the man in question was guilty of attempting to smuggle thousands of Euros in cash from Costa Rica to the UK. This exercise enabled me to understand that facilitation of behind the scenes tours for journalists is an important PR tool in making the operations of the UKBA transparent to the public via the media.
I hope you have all enjoyed reading about my experiences - I have enjoyed sharing them!
Also - i have just discovered how to include images in my blog, so please find attached.
If you are interested in the work of the UKBA please visit http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/
Also - i have just discovered how to include images in my blog, so please find attached.
The Home Office headquarters, Westminster, London.
The Border Force Communications team, of which I was part.
Dennis, Senior Immigration Officer, standing in front of the check in desk at Cardiff International Airport.
Jess
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