UK Warns of Border Delays When New EU Border System Begins
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – UK travelers should prepare for long lines at the border during peak times when a new European Union system requiring Britons to share their biometric data is introduced in October, the government warned.
Tourists and business people entering from non-EU countries, including the UK, will be required to register details such as their fingerprints and photograph at the border when the bloc brings in its new system, Bloomberg reported.
The rollout is expected to cause longer queues at airports, ports and the Eurostar rail line, and EU diplomats believe it will pose an early test of the UK-EU relationship under Labor.
The Home Office will increase the presence of French border officials at the Port of Dover to reduce the risk of delays and will work with the French government to amend its border control arrangements and streamline checks, the government said in a statement on July 29.
The newly elected Labor government says the previous administration did not do enough to prepare for the new system.
The “checks will be a major change to the EU border so the public should prepare for some queues during peak times when they are first introduced,” said Seema Malhotra, minister for immigration and citizenship.
“We have been reviewing the preparations that have been made so far and...previous Home Office ministers had simply not done enough to mitigate the impact. We are now working swiftly to minimize the risk of excessive queue times as much as possible.”
The system is designed to automate registration of non-EU nationals travelling to the bloc for short stays and is meant to reduce delays in the longer term, with border guards no longer having to manually check and stamp passports.
The Port of Dover will have 24 kiosks for passengers to complete the new checks, while Eurostar will have almost 50 desks and the Eurotunnel will have more than 100, the government said. It estimates the new system will add just over five minutes to journey times.