Passengers are concerned about the potential for longer queues at UK airports and border points when a new rule is brought in this year. The EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) is expected to launch in the autumn.
Afterwards, British holidaymakers will no longer need to get their passports stamped when they enter and leave countries in the Schengen area, which includes popular holiday destinations like Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal and France.
Instead, UK tourists will need to provide a fingerprint and facial scan, then scan their passports at an automated self-service kiosk prior to crossing the border.
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The much-delayed scheme, which is now expected to be rolled out in October, is designed to keep a better record of travellers visiting the Schengen zone from non-EU countries and to track any overstayers or refusals of entry.
The new scanners will register the person’s name, type of travel document, biometric data and the date and place of entry or exit.
However, some Brits have said that the new system will put them off travelling to Europe in future. A poll conducted by the National Travel Attitudes Study, which surveyed 1,584 people, found that 15% of respondents said they would travel to the continent less after EES is launched.
Of those, around two thirds expressed concerns about longer queues and additional document checks, while 59% were concerned about the amount of time or effort needed to complete the initial registration for travel into Europe.
Just less than a third were worried about the collection of fingerprints, and 26% felt uneasy about the collection of facial photographs, while 15% were not concerned about any of the options presented. A total of 69% of those polled had not heard of the Entry/Exit System.
Since plans for the EES were revealed, concerns have been raised about the significant operational challenges the new system will pose, including at the Port of Dover and Eurostar for those travelling across the English Channel, due to a lack of space to conduct the extra checks.
Chair of the European Scrutiny Committee, Sir William Cash, previously suggested that travellers could face 14-hour queues as ‘a reasonable worst case scenario’, however Eurotunnel chief executive Yann Leriche said journeys would only take five to seven minutes longer, with extra lanes and technology helping the process to go smoothly.
The EU has said it doesn’t expect any significant delays at airports and estimates that registering passengers’ biometric information for the first time will take around two minutes per person.
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