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Greece defies EU to scrap fingerprint checks for British travellers
British passport holders will keep manual passport checks as Greece seeks to cut airport queues and ease delays of up to four hours, officials said.
- On Friday, Eleni Skarveli, director of the Greek National Tourism Organisation in the UK, announced British passport holders are exempt from biometric registration at Greek borders, ensuring a "smoother and more efficient arrival experience in Greece."
- Since April 10, the European Union has required biometric checks for third-country nationals at Schengen area frontiers, but officials in Athens opted to bypass these rules for British visitors to avoid airport chaos observed elsewhere.
- Ms Skarveli told The Independent that the entry process remains unchanged, involving only a passport glimpse and stamp, contrasting with the new Entry Exit System requiring fingerprints and facial biometrics across 29 Schengen countries.
- By bypassing these requirements, Greece expects to "significantly reduce waiting times and ease congestion at airports," reflecting the country's economic reliance on British tourists who outnumber all other third-country nationals visiting the region.
- Observers suggest Greece has "stolen a march on her Mediterranean rivals," with expectations that other nations might follow this example, while the Home Office previously urged visitors to allocate four hours for system navigation elsewhere.
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources27
Leaning Left4Leaning Right3Center15Last UpdatedBias Distribution68% Center
Bias Distribution
- 68% of the sources are Center
68% Center
L 18%
C 68%
14%
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