i am planning a trip to austraila this summer. can someone meet you at the gate?? - Eirika, USA

Yes, someone can meet you at the gate, straight off the plane! In fact a whole bunch of people will meet you. Unfortunately, they’re not people you can choose. They tend to be Quarantine service or immigration officials, possibly with an inquisitive dog who will sniff your bottom looking for drugs.

While it might give visitors a nice cosy feeling to be met straight off the plane by their hosts, it wouldn’t do much good in the fight against illicit drugs, unauthorised entry, international terrorism and the importation of Barry Manilow records if entering visitors could mix it with the locals before going through the various controls to enter the country, would it.

• Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service
• Immigration

This entry was posted on Monday, April 21st, 2003 at 4:21 pm and is filed under Visiting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.