Is rudeness to UK immigration officials a sufficient reason to deny entry?
- By
- Aparna Patel
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- 19 Jul, 2023
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Consider a hypothetical Snarkgirl, whose superpower is being rude.
She cannot be arrogant, rude or condescending in a vacuum
The root problem is it is impracticable to separate these trivial traits from the non-trivial things they imply.
When she gives a rude answer, she “uses up” the one slot where a straight answer would plug in. That means she is not giving a straight answer, which means she is evading.
What’s more, such speech has a subtext. One is not rude randomly. One is rude to establish dominance over another person, or to lodge a complaint in a passive-aggressive manner, or to deflect attention from something else. They are going to care about that subtext. Since Snarkgirl hasn’t directly stated it, she is being deceptive and worse, she is leaving Immigration guessing as to her actual motivations.
Show a photo of a man leaning over a baby carriage. Citizens tend to say they see a doting father. Cops tend to say they see a child abduction. That is why you must be careful around cops, they are the most paranoid people around.
It’s easy to Mary-Sue yourself into being the hero of your own story. But remember, unlike every amateur sleuth on TV, you don’t have plot armor: there is no mechanism by which they come to their senses by the end of the episode.
If you are compelled to be clever, you would have to be very, very careful to structure your responses so you are plainly giving a straight and honest answer, and then simply capping it off with a Dennis Leary snark.
Denial of entry (’exclusion ’) is used to prohibit non-European Economic Area (non-EEA) nationals from entering the UK if their presence would not be conducive to the public good. Exclusion of a person from the UK is normally used in circumstances involving national security, criminality, international crimes (war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide), corruption and unacceptable behaviour.
The types of activities covered by the term ‘Unacceptable behaviour’ are described in this Guide https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/741420/exclusion-from-the-uk-v2.0ext.pdf and generally relate to expressing views which foment terrorism, criminal acts etc.
‘Ordinary’ rudeness therefore should not lead to denial of entry in and of itself. However, I imagine it may well result in the Immigration Officer looking more closely at the individual’s eligibility for entry, which could lead to a denial for other reasons.
Edit: the general grounds for refusal of entry clearance or entry at a U.K. port are available here https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/general-grounds-for-refusal-modernised-guidance
The rule is “Refusing the applicant entry to the UK is conducive to the public good. For example… “
If you are rude, and the immigration official is annoyed by your rudeness, that would not be a reason to not let you enter.
But if the immigration official decides that your rudeness implies the UK is better off without you, then they can refuse you entry.
So it depends on what rudeness we are talking about. If you said to the immigration official “you are an a******e” then this should not be grounds for refusal. If you said “you are an a******e, the same as all the Brits”, that could be grounds for refusal. Obviously the government official is not bound by my opinion, and saying either thing would be rather stupid if your goal is to enter the UK.
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