EU’s ‘unpleasant and dangerous’ border checks need overhaul, says Greek airports boss

The boss of 14 Greek airports has called for a serious overhaul of the EU’s new border checks after having to erect gazebos for passengers queuing outside.Alexander Zinell, the chief executive of Greece" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="161971" data-entity-type="organization">Fraport Greece, joined a growing chorus of critics calling out “fundamental flaws” in the entry-exit system (EES), which requires non-EU passengers to have their fingerprints and photo taken at the start of their trip and verified every time they leave or re-enter the Schengen zone.Zinell’s airports have had to use gazebos to shield queuing passengers from the sun as they wait to be processed, while vulnerable people have been prioritised through security to ensure their safety.“It is very unpleasant for passengers, and even dangerous,” Zinell said.Greek authorities have indicated that police will not check UK passengers, although there is no blanket legal exemption from the biometric tests. Visitors from the UK make up the bulk of non-EU tourists passing through Zinell’s airports, which include Corfu, Rhodes, Mykonos and Crete.Border police have flexibility under EU rules to suspend checks at peak times, but that right is set to lapse in September. Zinell said the flexibility was the only thing keeping the system, which was first rolled out last October, from collapse.“These are just temporary fixes, the system needs to be overhauled,” he told the Financial Times in an interview. “It needs a new version, an update, and probably a reconfiguration in order to allow people to register before they fly, before they get on a plane, before they go to the airport.”EU authorities are already facing calls from the International Air Transport Association to suspend the controls until next summer because of fears of chaos in holiday hotspots.Iata said last week that passengers were also experiencing “delays and missed connections” in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Belgium, while Ryanair warned of “queue chaos” in airports including at popular holiday destinations such as Alicante, Málaga and Palma.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionBritish cross-Channel ferry passengers could face long delays unless the French border police suspend EES. The Home Office has promised to push heavily for the checks to be paused at Dover after warnings that the port faced “utter chaos and miles of tailbacks” with peak holiday traffic due to begin from 17 July.The port of Dover said EES checks at the start of the May half-term holiday led to delays of four and a half hours, and it expected almost 50% more vehicles to travel through Dover at peak time in the school summer holidays.While EU authorities have admitted the system is “not perfect”, they have so far rejected calls for any temporary suspension. Officials said that of the 1,500 border crossing points, only 20 were “difficult spots” and member states would be called on to put measures in place to ease the strain.