At the Eurotunnel linking the United Kingdom and France, plans are under way to trial a new biometric border-control system. It will allow drivers and passengers to be checked directly in their vehicles, without getting out.
The European Commission and the French authorities have agreed to a two-year trial of the system, The Guardian reports, citing Getlink chief executive Yann Leriche, whose company operates the Eurotunnel.
Special terminals will be installed for checks, equipped with passport readers, fingerprint scanners and facial-recognition systems. Travellers will not need to go to separate border-control facilities.
According to Leriche, 120 kiosks have already been set up at the terminals in Folkestone in the UK and Calais in France. The system will be monitored by law-enforcement officers using surveillance cameras similar to those used at airports in Rome and Paris.
Each vehicle will be able to pull up to an individual terminal with two stations for reading passports, taking fingerprints and photographing faces.
Getlink hopes the change will help cut border-processing times and avoid lengthy queues, especially during periods of heavy passenger traffic.
The company had previously considered other ways of carrying out biometric checks. In particular, passengers were offered tablets to scan their own fingerprints, or to complete the procedure in a separate room after parking their vehicle.
However, these options required police officers to be present during the initial registration of biometric data, which could cause delays.
After talks with the European Commission and the French authorities, the company received permission to trial a system of remote monitoring of the checks.
The exact start date for the trial is not yet known. Leriche said the equipment has already been installed and prepared for use, but it is not yet connected to the French border system.
The change is linked to the introduction of the European Entry/Exit System (EES). It provides for the collection of biometric data from citizens of non-EU countries, including holders of British passports, when crossing the external borders of the Schengen area.
Travellers will have to provide fingerprints and a facial image to be registered in the system.
The full rollout of the EES has been repeatedly delayed due to technical problems. According to The Guardian, nine of the EU’s 27 countries, including France, have still not completed deployment of the system.
Getlink fears that without streamlined procedures, biometric checks could lead to multi-kilometre tailbacks near the Eurotunnel terminals.