Greece ditches fingerprint and facial scans for Britons after new EU travel rules sparked border chaos across Europe

British holidaymakers are leaving Greece It is set to evade controversial new EU border controls this summer after Athens scrapped fingerprint and facial scanning requirements.

The move comes as Brussels seeks to implement its comprehensive Entry/Exit System (EES), which would require all non-EU visitors to submit biometric data at airports and border crossings in the bloc.

The scheme, designed to replace traditional passport stamping and police the 90-day visa-free rule, has already sparked warnings of crippling delays.

Tourists have been told queues could stretch for up to four hours under the new regime, which is now fully operational.

However, in order to avoid disruptions at the peak of the summer holiday season, Greece has abandoned this option for now.

Eleni Skarveli, Director of the Greek National Tourism Organization in the UK, said the decision would ‘provide a smoother and more efficient arrival experience in Greece’ and would ‘significantly reduce waiting times’ while easing congestion at airports.

The rollout of EES has not been without incident elsewhere. More than 120 easyJet passengers were stranded at Milan Linate Airport last Sunday after missing their flights to Manchester due to a long wait at border control.

They included teacher Max Hume, 56, his wife Lynsey, 46, and their 13-year-old son Archie, whose return from a family ski trip ended in disappointment.

The move comes as Brussels seeks to implement its comprehensive Entry/Exit System (EES), which would require all non-EU visitors to submit biometric data at airports and border crossings in the bloc.

After queuing for more than an hour when they arrived in Italy and heeding advice to arrive early for departure, they arrived at the airport around three hours before takeoff – only to face further delays.

They eventually watched their plane take off without them.

Faced with a £330 rebooking fee for a flight five days later, the family instead paid around £1,600 for an alternative route via Luxembourg.

Speaking to The Independent, Mr Hume said he felt ‘devastated, sad, disappointed, completely torn apart and poorer, much poorer’.

Of the 156 passengers who were supposed to board the flight to Manchester, only 34 were able to board and 122 were left behind. easyJet later issued an apology.

In the UK, problems continue at key ‘side by side’ border points at Dover, Folkestone and London St Pancras, where expensive EES kiosks are disconnected from French border police systems.

The outage is expected to continue until at least September.

Greece’s decision is seen as a strategic move to protect its vital tourism sector, which relies heavily on British visitors flocking to hotspots such as Corfu, Crete and Rhodes, each of which can receive more than 2,000 visitors a day from the UK during peak season.

Since there is no definitive end date for the exemption, speculations are increasing that other Mediterranean countries may follow the same path.

Travel experts say the change may already be affecting vacation plans.

A spokesman for ABTA said: ‘Europe is seeing a huge increase in holiday destination interest this year due to the war in the Middle East.’

The organization expects Greece to be the fifth most popular destination for Britons this summer, behind Spain, France, Italy and the US.

“I think it’s too early to say what this change means in terms of the number of people visiting, particularly as decisions about where to go are based on a number of factors,” the spokesman added.

Still, some travelers seem to have made up their minds.

One user on

Another said: ‘I work in the travel industry, my clients were already worried about this new system, believe me, Greece will benefit from this stand!’

A third declared: ‘Perfect – going to the Greek islands this summer – common sense prevails!’