OFF: immigration trivia quiz

[Colin J Allen]

On a similar tack....I once got stopped at a German airport because they had
found 3 live rounds in my suitcase; the odd thing was that I was flying INTO
Germany and they had not been detected at all when leaving the UK.  Now that
was some interview

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----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Youles" <youless at COX.NET>
To: <BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET>
Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2003 4:43 PM
Subject: Re: OFF: immigration trivia quiz


> ---------------------------------------------------
> On Sun, 24 Aug 2003 15:58:01 +0200, Henderson Keith
> <keith.henderson at PSI.CH> wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
> P.S.  Still don't understand why the Canadians (and Aussies too?)
> didn't get to go through the 'express' line, but that the Swiss
> were able to, since I guess they are part of something called EFTA,
> I think it was (what the heck does this mean?).
> ----------------------------------------------------
> EFTA = European Free Trade Area.  This was something actually set up by
> Britain, when de Gaulle refused us entry to the European Economic
Community
> as it was then called.  It still exists and countries affiliated to it are
> granted something like associate membership of the EU, that is, they get
> all the benefits and none of the disadvantages...
>
> I had the opposite problem to everyone else re: immigration.  I had
trouble
> *leaving* the UK, owing to the fact that I had packed some souvenir inert
> bullets in my luggage.  These were for my son (11 years old, the same one
> who only likes Hawkwind for the explosions) and he and I had bought them
at
> a couple of military museums we visited.  We had already checked our
> luggage in at Gatwick when I was paged to go back to the check-in desk.  I
> was told they had spotted somnething they weren't happy with in my bags
and
> that the police were present!  The boy and I ended up being interviewed by
> 2 armed cops (Heckler & Koch 9mm submachine guns) and a customs officer.
> Their opening gambit was "You appear to have ammunition in your suitcase"
> and I had to fish it out for them to inspect.  They let us keep the
bullets
> but confiscated my son's potato gun...
>
> So now Hawkwind fans are going to be regarded by UK Customs as not only
> potential drug smugglers but as arms smugglers too.  I apologise in
advance
> to anyone who ends up going to jail for several years on that account...
>
> Steve
>