There are some specific countries in Europe people from the UK flock to for their holidays, but a major change will soon take place that some travellers might not be aware of
A British man has shared the date that a ‘big change’ will be coming in for travellers heading to European hotspots. John Hannam, who gives his views on the world, current events and politics, revealed the news in a TikTok video.
Every year Brits flock to certain countries in Europe, including Spain, Greece, Italy and France for their holidays, especially in summer. These destinations attract large numbers of British tourists who enjoy the warmer weather compared to the UK, sandy beaches and cultural and historical attractions. However John has made his TikTok followers aware of something they might not know about.
In a recent video on the platform, he announced that travellers visiting anywhere in the EU will face a change to their future holidays from October 12.
The outspoken Brit said: “How is it going to change? Well, new border control rules come in from October 12th onwards for all people from outside of the Schengen travel area.
“What are those changes? Well, just to give you some of them, everyone will be fingerprint scanned so you have your fingerprints taken every time you enter the EU.”
He claimed that a high quality photo and scan of your face will be taken every time you enter the EU and you will have to prove on request where you will be staying, how long you will be staying for and what the purpose of your visit is.
John added: “Now this won’t necessarily happen to every single passenger going through the airport terminal or the ferry terminal.
“The fingerprints and the photograph with all the rest of it, not necessarily, but if they decide to stop you and question you, you have to have all this documentation on you, you have to be able to demonstrate it, you have to be able to prove it or they can refuse your entry.”
According to an official European Union travel website, the new Entry/Exit System (EES) will come into effect on October 12 and if you arrive at a border crossing point for the first time since the EES started, passport control officers will scan your fingerprints or take a photo of your face.
The purpose of the system is to modernise border management across the European countries by electronically registering non-EU nationals’ entries and exits, or entry refusals, combat identity fraud by collecting biometric data and help to combat terrorism and serious organised crime by acting as an identity verification tool.
However, non-EU nationals who travel regularly to Europe may benefit from derogations from thorough checks upon arrival, outlined in John’s TikTok video, under national facilitation programmes so passport control officers in the respective territory may not need to verify their point of departure and destination, the purpose of their intended stay and the corresponding supporting documents, if necessary, and whether they have sufficient means of subsistence for the duration and purpose of their intended stay.
John’s TikTok clip has garnered 196,200 views, 3,370 likes and more than 800 comments, at the time of writing.
He asked his viewers for their thoughts on these new border control rules and one said: “We did this in Malaysia years ago. It’s a great system.
“We now go through customs really quickly.” A second added: “We’ve been photographed for the past 5 years going into Cyprus and fingerprinted going into the USA…no issues at all, as long as your passport is in date you will have no problems, in fact less waiting times at border control than you do now.”
However, a different viewer argued: “They don’t want us leaving the country. All about control.”