Eurostar passengers to be fingerprinted twice under complex new EU rules

Eurostar passengers at St Pancras station will be forced to negotiate a five-step check-in process under strict new EU rules, providing their fingerprints and a mugshot twice and answering a series of questions on the nature of their trip. People planning to travel through the Channel Tunnel will be sent a guide to the new system as soon as they book, including a flow chart and checklist detailing each stage of the process and explaining why it is being implemented. Eurostar has spent €10m (£8.5m) on dozens of new border kiosks, which it said on Tuesday will keep passengers moving once the so-called Entry/Exit System (EES) is finally introduced on October 6. Brussels says the EES, which will replace the physical stamping of passports, is aimed at enhancing border security. It will harvest data on EU entries and exits, calculate the number of times people cross the border, and record overstayers and refusals of entry. Implementation of the new post-Brexit system has been delayed several times, most recently to avoid the Paris Olympics, amid fears it could spark long delays at ports and train stations when it is first implemented. Eurostar has doubled the capacity of its departure system to...

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