Staff ReporterBRITS heading to Mallorca will soon be required to give up their fingerprint as well as a face mugshot on entry under new EU legislation coming in.
The new European Union Entry/Exit System (EES), which has faced two delays, is scheduled to take effect later this year.
The EES is expected to come in around the same time as the EU’s new ETIAS entry fee, dubbed a tourist tax, which will require €7 to enter the Schengen zone.
Gangsters and thugs need also be aware: It will record refusals of entry, while identifying over-stayers as well as cases of document and identity fraud.
It will also collect other vital information including travel document type and the date and location of entry and exit.
However, the new system should speed up border crossings, which will be especially useful for Brits stuck in slow, non-EU airport queues.
Brits and other non-EU nationals who are both short-stay visa holders and visa exempt travellers, each time they cross an EU external border.
The new system is designed to replace the manual stamping of passports, which it claims is outdated, slower and less reliable at catching immigration abuse.
The system will operate at the Port of Dover and Eurostar and Eurotunnel terminals in the UK.
It is likely that non-EU/Schengen citizens who do not require a visa to enter the EU will have their fingerprints and facial images taken the first time they cross a border into the EU, once the new system is in operation.
This data will normally be erased from the system for data protection reasons three years after the last trip to a country using the EES system.
Nationals of countries requiring a visa to enter the EU will not have their fingerprints taken by the EES system, as they will already have provided fingerprints as part of their visa application.
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