The new automatic border control gates, which were opened by the Home Affairs Minister Jan Jambon and the State Secretary for Asylum and Immigration Theo Francken on Friday, have broken down. Kaatje Natens, the spokesman for the federal police, spoke about it on Sunday evening. Her statement confirmed information that appeared on Le Soir’s website. She added that technicians were at the scene on Monday to try and find out why they broke down. Passengers will be redirected to other gates in the meantime, Mrs Natens said.
The new gates allow European Union citizens aged over 12 from a country outside the Schengen area to do a digital identity check at Brussels Airport.
The e-gate automatically checks the authenticity of identification documents (Belgian identity cards and European passports) through facial recognition. It checks whether the document holder is wanted by police via the police’s databanks.
A check takes on average 20 seconds in the best conditions.
The new gates cost 2.4 million euros.
(Source: Belga)
