Without proper preparation for the European Entry/Exit System (EES) at the EU’s external borders, the duration of process at border control booths will take a lot more time than now, creating tumultuous and unwanted events. Implementation seems manageable at air and sea borders, but hardly feasible on land borders.
Why is it hard to implement available technology? Here are some answers that will make you realize the difficulties of introducing the EES.
Space – or rather lack of space
The lack of space is the greatest problem at every location. Experts deem necessary the setting up of 4 to 5 TCN (Third Country National) kiosks per border patrol station, which might add up to as much as 40 to 50 new kiosks per airports.
This poses a major challenge at airport: for instance, in Prague the airport has to find a solution to this problem in a 60-year-old building that has already been outgrown by traffic.
The management of passenger flux is quite a challenge on its own, educational signs, billboards, directing lanes will have to be set up.
Time
Time constraint is yet another big challenge. The ideal goal would be to limit the waiting time of the last passenger to maximum 30 minutes. That is a necessity because of the need to reach connecting flights, luggage reclaim, etc.
Personnel
Currently, labor shortage is a global problem. There is no available personnel at disposal, and if there was, there is no funding to pay for their work.
Entry of families
Where do you put the children during the enrollment of the parents?
Brexit
One single word: chaos.
Second line check processing
Due to more in-depth checks, an increased second line check is to be expected, with no resources for it either.
User friendly technologies and systems
There is already a fierce competition between the terminals, with the race to become the most "user friendly" airport.
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Technologies serving EES have to adapt to air, sea and land borders
Travelers arrive by air, by sea and also on land. While long-term estimates and short-term forecasts of visitor numbers show that EES is feasible for air and sea border checkpoints, while land borders are much harder to manage – especially considering annual peak periods like the Christmas holiday and the beginning of summer vacation at schools.
Delivering the necessary infrastructure is a daunting task – including e-gates, requiring passport readers that are able to process the quantities of travel documents and to verify traveler identity in a reasonably short time period.
A logical solution replacing manual passport stamping is what we might call “electronic stamping”: biometric data captured on site, ePassport processed and – after each entry event – all data recorded safely in relevant national and EU databases.
A key element of the process is that biometric data like face and fingerprints must be recorded at the time of entry rather than prior to the entry event, which requires the massive upgrade of currently available passport reading infrastructure to serve points of entry.
ARH’s industry partner secunet has outlined the solution and described how to comply with the new Entry/Exit regulations.
As a concrete example of an imaginary airport, with an annual number of 20 million passengers, of which 45.5% are TCN, Secunet has the following recommendations:
- Installation of 3-4 self-service kiosks per current TCN border control booth is a good ratio
- Recommended number of self-service kiosks and TCN border control booths are highly dependent on input data
- Offer TCN border control booth exclusively for TCNs with prior kiosk usage
- Introduction of a flexible border control application as well as self-service kiosks before the start of operation of the EES reduces risks
The good news is that ARH’s know-how and field-tested expertise can help realize the objectives of the EU in terms of EES.
Here’s how:
ARH’s passport readers are ready to manage visitor flow and maintain the highest possible security in the European Union in the framework of the new Entry/Exit System.
A quick recap
For airports and ports alike: kiosks
Land border sections: the solution has yet to be found, because:
Live face capture: cannot be done in the required quality for those traveling by bus, train, or cars, it cannot be done with a mobile device Document Scanning: possible with a mobile device only Fingerprint scanning: similar to document scanning, with mobile devices on trains and buses Outdoor application: does not work due to weather (frost, etc.) Enrollment containers or buses: parking of tourist buses and cars during enrollment is a problem due to lack of space. Collection of data within 10-20 km range of the border puts the verification of the origin of the data at risk.
A load of statistical data is at hands on existing systems, with a deep technical approach, but they all point at the difficulties of extra control due to the introduction of EES.
