At the end of September, the European Union’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) comes into effect. From that moment, passengers from non-EU countries will have to carry out biometric checks at the border.

Port of Dover and GetLink, the group operating the Channel Tunnel, believe that passengers will have to leave their vehicles to do facial recognition and even fingerprint scans at the border and the resulting delays will cause mayhem.

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Over 30 million passengers travel between the Channel Tunnel and Port of Dover each year. They account for more than £260 billion of trade. It is important to keep in mind that nearly 60 per cent of all trade in goods between the UK and the EU passes across the short strait.

Port of Dover estimates that biometric checks will increase waiting times by at least two minutes for each individual traveller. This slight change would have larger repercussions on the overall flow of exchanges of people and goods between Great Britain and France and other EU member states. 

In the meantime, EU representatives assure that individual member states will decide about the exact way of implementation of the new biometric checks. 

Author: Sebastien Meuwissen

Cover photo: Twitter @simonhouston