Dear Editor
Entry to EU27 member state, Germany, Monday October 20: Usual passport control, with both ID Kommand Posts inactive – ‘service unavailable’.
Over the next 48 hours the phased EU Entry/Exit System (EES) came into operation at my departure point.
Exit Germany, Wednesday October 22: Four ID Kommand Posts for ‘pre-registration’, without which one cannot go to passport control. No support, but it is self-evident. Collected: Face image and right-hand finger prints. No information anywhere about how the information is stored. At this stage the member state and EU27 have collected enough ID to create a fraudulent copy, in the wrong hands.
Next step: Passport control, less than five metres away. Repeat the finger print scan. I asked the border Kontrol person how long this is valid for – ‘Three months.’
Next step: Passport control, less than five metres away (yes, the third stage). My passport was checked again, nearly wrecking the brand new document. The agent was clearly confused and concerned by what he saw, but this did not result in questions. I asked the border Kontrol person how long this is valid for – ‘No time, the process must be completed on every entry or exit.’ This statement is wrong, but I suspect accurate.
The conclusions:
Germany has damaged my new passport.
Germany has collected important data in addition to the important data on my passport with no evidence of information security.
Germany has done such a poor job of the roll-out that their own staff don’t know the rules.
The process is clunky, slow and will delay travel.
The border control people were clearly not at ease with the way the process works.
If there is any ID theft, the first port of call will be the EU27 Kommission.
Andrew Marsh
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