British travellers to Europe have never had it so good: that is the narrative from the government ever since the UK-EU “reset”.
Ministers from Sir Kier Starmer downwards have been happy for holidaymakers to infer that they will have a better experience at European Union borders this summer – and that the UK government deserves credit for improving our travelling lives.
Much of that optimism is based on British citizens being able use passport e-gates. But what is the reality?
Some background: after the 2016 decision to leave the European Union, Boris Johnson’s government negotiated for the “Venezuela outcome” as far as British travellers are concerned. We chose to became “third-country nationals” – a designation proudly shared with many others, including Venezuelans.
The practical consequences for British holidaymakers crossing borders were clear, because the UK helped create the European rules. Previously only one check was necessary when travelling between the UK and the Schengen area (the rest of the EU minus Ireland, plus Iceland, Norway and Switzerland): that the passport was valid and that it belonged to the holder.
E-gates are brilliant at this. They compare the information encoded in a passport with the traveller’s face to verify that the document belongs to that individual. They are also linked to a central database to confirm the document’s validity.
The post-Brexit changes that the UK requested, and to which Brussels agreed, include:
- Having our passports stamped on the way in and out of Europe
- Giving up access to the fast track for citizens of the EU and wider Schengen area
- Having border guards check we have not outstayed our 90-day welcome
Each individual border transaction therefore takes much more time, leading to extremely long queues if border resources are thin.
The most recent half-term was miserable for thousands of families, whether flying in to the Spanish island of Tenerife or flying out of Faro in Portugal. New arrivals and homeward-bound passengers experienced two-hour waits at times. This was gruelling for new arrivals – and expensive for some departing travellers, who missed their flights despite having arrived in good time at the airport.
Faro airport, at least, will improve – with British travellers now able to use e-gates. But that is only part of the story.
These are the key UK government claims, and my assessment of each.
‘Millions more Brits arriving in the Algarve are set to benefit from e-gates ahead of the summer holidays’
Source: Cabinet Office press release.
Assessment: Configuring e-gates at the Portuguese airport to connect to UK government systems will speed things up a bit for many British passengers. Border staff will no longer need to verify the traveller’s identity.
All good, then?
Not quite. Families with young children will still need to queue to see an official – though if enough adults without kids are being accelerated through e-gates, that may speed up family checks.
But there is a built-in slowdown. After passing through e-gates, every British passport must be stamped by a human border guard. In theory he or she should also check that the traveller has not been in the Schengen area for more than 90 days out of the past 180 days.
The claims for Faro airport are astonishingly ambitious.
‘[E-gate access] will speed up journeys for the approximately 10 million British travellers who use the airport each year’
Source: Prime minister’s official spokesperson.
Assessment: Complete tosh. Around 2.5 million UK citizens visit Portugal in a typical year. Counting flying in and out, that is 5 million border crossings – covering Lisbon, Porto and Madeira airports as well as Faro, plus those who arrive by land and sea. But let us generously assume that half of those British visitors are using Faro airport. That is still one-quarter of the figure given by No 10. I have told the Cabinet Office this, and asked to see its working.
Now let us look at some wider assertions …
‘British holidaymakers will be able to use more e-gates in Europe, ending the dreaded queues at border control’
Source: Government announcement.
Assessment: The first part of this claim is demonstrably true. Besides Faro allowing UK visitors to go through e-gates, many other European authorities are moving in that direction because, as mentioned, it is an extremely efficient way of handling part of the border bureaucracy.
Each EU nation makes its own decisions on how to operate its borders. Some are choosing to introduce e-gates for third-country nationals in order to accelerate the arrival and departure process.
The second part of the assertion is fanciful. While “dreaded” is not quantified, it is reasonable to say anything longer than a half-an-hour is unwelcome. There will doubtless be squeezes in arrivals halls over the summer that result in hour-long queues.
At Tenerife South airport, at times in summer nine inbound flights from the UK are scheduled within a single half-hour. If they keep to schedule, there will be a sudden influx of over 1,600 people – the vast majority of whom have British, rather than EU, passports. Resourcing to allow swift processing for peaks such as that would be unreasonably expensive for border authorities.
‘The Prime Minister has been clear that there should be no reason why European countries cannot go further and faster on this now’
Source: Foreign Office minister Baroness Chapman of Darlington, speaking in the House of Lords.
That’s a big claim. European countries may well have good reasons for not going “further and faster” on rolling out e-gates for British holidaymakers. They may wish to commit money and effort to things that will benefit their citizens, rather than helping the UK clear up one of the many messes brought about by the British decision to leave the EU.
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