EU border chaos

The European Union’s new biometric border system hit full operation on Friday, and by Sunday about 100 easyJet passengers were stranded at Milan Linate after hours in passport-control lines. (ec.europa.eu; bbc.co.uk) The system is called the Entry/Exit System. It replaces passport stamps with digital records for non-European Union nationals on short stays, including a facial image, fingerprints, and travel-document data. (europa.eu; ec.europa.eu) The European Commission said the Entry/Exit System began a phased launch on 12 October 2025 and became fully operational at all external Schengen border crossings on 10 April 2026. It now covers 29 European countries using the system. (ec.europa.eu; europa.eu) At Milan Linate on Sunday 12 April, queues reportedly stretched to three hours. The BBC said passengers described people fainting and vomiting in the heat while they waited to clear border control for a Manchester flight. (bbc.co.uk) The Independent reported that easyJet flight EJU5420 from Milan to Manchester had 156 booked passengers and left with only 34 on board. That meant 122 travelers were left behind after the border bottleneck. (independent.co.uk) One stranded traveler, Max Hume from Leeds, told the BBC he spent £1,800 to get home through Luxembourg after missing the flight. The BBC also reported that some passengers said they had reached the gate area hours early but could not get through passport control. (bbc.co.uk) easyJet had warned on 31 March that the new checks could mean longer passport-control queues across Europe and told customers to arrive early, clear security as soon as possible, and expect extra checks before the gate. After the Milan disruption, the airline said the delays were caused by border processing outside its control. (easyjet.com; telegraph.co.uk) European Union officials say the system is meant to spot overstays, detect identity fraud, and record refusals of entry more reliably than passport stamps. The Commission said more than 52 million entries and exits had already been logged during the rollout period, along with more than 27,000 refusals of entry. (ec.europa.eu; ec.europa.eu) For travelers, the practical change is at the first crossing after the system starts: border officers collect personal details, take a face photo, and or scan fingerprints, then store that in a digital file for later checks. The European Union says later crossings should be faster because they rely on verification instead of a first-time registration. (europa.eu; ec.europa.eu) The next test is scale. easyJet said airports across Europe could see longer queues, and the Milan delays arrived before the summer travel peak the system was designed to handle. (easyjet.com; ec.europa.eu)