Health screening of customers arriving in the UK from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea will begin at Heathrow following new measures announced by the UK Government.
The screening of customers will start today (Tuesday October 14).
UK Border Force and Public Health England will be working together to identify customers as they arrive at Heathrow and Gatwick Airport’s respective immigration areas.
The extra screening will begin at Heathrow Terminal 1 and will be rolled out to the other terminals at Heathrow and Gatwick in the coming days.
Customers selected for additional screening will have to have visited Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea in the recent past and UK Border Force will use Advance Passenger Information (APIS) to help them select people.
All other customers who have not visited those three countries will not be required to undertake any additional screening.
Customers who have been to one of these three countries will be taken aside into a private room for further questioning and if required a medical examination.
All flights into and out of the UK are continuing as normal.
The decision to stop flying to Sierra Leone and Liberia was taken in early Augustand has since been extended to the end of March 2015.
All other routes in Africa continue to operate as normal.
More information can be found on the following websites:
Public Health England
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/358306/west-africa-ebola-uk-aviation-sector-guidance-sept-2014.pdf
World Health Organisation
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en
Centre for Disease Control & Prevention
http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/warning/ebola-liberia