British travellers have been warned changes to European border controls in nine months could mean them having their fingerprints taken when they travel to and from the continent.
From November, British travellers will no longer have their passports stamped whenever they enter or exit the 27-country Schengen zone as the process becomes digitised. The stamps became compulsory after Brexit to check that UK travellers had not overstayed the time limits imposed on non-EU nationals.
But that is now due to be scrapped and an automated entry and exit system (EES) will digitally register British and other non-EU visitors, the Liverpool Echo reports. The European Commission’s department for Migration and Home Affairs said: "EES will replace the current system of manual stamping of passports, which is time-consuming, does not provide reliable data on border crossings and does not allow a systematic detection of overstayers."
