Updated

Updated · The Independent · Aug 18

10 European Countries Avoid EES Border Checks as New System Triggers Queues of Up to 5 Hours

Updated

Updated · The Independent · Aug 18

10 European Countries Avoid EES Border Checks as New System Triggers Queues of Up to 5 Hours

Q: Why might travelers seeking to escape Europe's five-hour biometric queues find themselves unexpectedly trapped at the Gibraltar border?

They could still be caught in EES-style queues because Gibraltar is no longer a true workaround to Schengen biometric controls. Under the post-Brexit UK-EU deal, the land border between Spain and Gibraltar has been opened up, but Schengen controls were effectively shifted to Gibraltar’s airport and port. Spain now carries out those checks there. That means travellers arriving in Gibraltar from outside Schengen, including from the UK, can be required to go through the same kind of biometric Entry/Exit System process — fingerprints and a facial image on a first entry — that has caused long waits elsewhere in Europe. So while Gibraltar may look like a non-Schengen British destination, in practice it has been folded into a Schengen-style border regime for incoming air and sea passengers. Travellers trying to dodge five-hour queues in mainland Europe could therefore meet similar delays at Gibraltar airport, especially during the early bedding-in period of the new system or at busy times. The key distinction is that the old land frontier queues with Spain have largely disappeared for daily cross-border movement, but the burden has moved to the airport and port for outside travellers. In short, Gibraltar is not a reliable EES-free escape route, even though the UK itself is outside Schengen.

3 articles · Updated · The Independent · Aug 18

Ten European countries — including Cyprus, Ireland, Albania, Serbia and the UK — are outside the Schengen Area and therefore do not require the new Entry-Exit System at their borders.
Queues of up to five hours have hit some Schengen entry points because first-time arrivals must provide fingerprints and facial images before passport control, with airports, staffing and system design all blamed for delays.
The EES has been installed across 29 Schengen countries, where travelers should generally face the biometric check only when entering or leaving the zone rather than moving within it.
Some territories linked to Schengen states also stay outside the system — such as Greenland, Aruba and French Polynesia — while others including the Canary Islands, Madeira and Gibraltar now require EES checks.