The eight new generation e-gates installed yesterday by the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) in the arrivals area of ​​Faro Airport controlled, in 24 hours, about a thousand passengers, who took «less than 20 seconds» to check their documentation.

At the end of a week in which the SEF was under fire due to an image that circulated on social networks, which accounted for long lines in accessing the passport control of the Algarve airport infrastructure. The new e-gates that have already been installed, “authenticate the travel document through a facial recognition system that compares, the passenger’s face with the photograph registered on the document chip”.

“The new e-gates have a faster and more functional operating system, which makes it possible to process passports with biometric data more quickly. The current system (RAPID) performs this process in just “one step” and all procedures are performed at a single stop of the passenger. After the identification process has been validated, which includes a search in international databases, the passenger is allowed to continue traveling”, explained SEF.

In this way, and despite the control of passengers coming from outside the Schengen area “continues to operate in the so-called winter zone, which is a small area due to the growing number of passengers after the opening of the air corridor with the United Kingdom”, there were no reports of similar situations to that experienced on Wednesday.

“In the last 48 hours, SEF controlled, at Faro Airport, more than 22 thousand passengers and 103 flights, without any record of complaints regarding waiting times in the document control”, assures this police force.

In the meantime, there was a reinforcement of SEF staff, operated this week, “which has already secured 12 more inspectors assigned to Faro Airport”. From 1 September, the SEF will be reinforced with 5 more inspectors..