EU Border System Delays Jeopardise Indigenous Pilgrimages
The Entry‑Exit System (EES), intended to streamline EU border security, has turned Berlin Airport into a choke point. Non‑EU passengers are now king‑pinning up to two hours at passport control, a delay reported by airport head Aletta von Massenbach.
Indigenous communities, particularly those of the northern Sámi in Norway and Finland, have long crossed the Skandia‑Finn‑Norway border for rituals, reindeer herding and community gatherings. The new digital barriers—where biometric data must be transmitted to a server that sits in each member state—have stretched those journeys to exhaustion.
“Our connection to the land will be challenged as months of bureaucracy cut into our travel time,” said a Sámi elder who travelled from Finland to a winter festival in Norway. The elder added that a 90‑minute wait could mean missing a ceremony that lasts only a few hours.
Meanwhile, airlines and airport operators echo the frustration. The European Commission admits it has been “working hard to keep the impact limited,” but constraints remain. At the Port of Dover, French authorities cannot activate the 84‑kiosk biometric system, meaning travelers have missed scheduled flights across Britain to cooperate with new EU rules.
Under EES, travellers from outside the Schengen zone, including the United Kingdom, must register their biometric details for onward travel. As the summer holiday rush intensifies, some passengers are already forced to accept new tickets or paid re‑bookings. The cost of a replacement flight can reach £250—often not covered by travel insurance, causing many families to cancel trips outright.
Airlines’ leaders are calling for contingency plans: "Pausing EES checks where systems are not ready would improve holidaymakers’ experience," said Steve Heapy of Jet2.
Indigenous rights advocates are urging the EU to adopt a flexible approach that recognises “cross‑border cultural ties,” proposing community‑based digital identity passports that honour traditional knowledge and mobility.
With the busiest travel season looming, ACI Europe’s emergency letter to Ursula von Der Leyen warns that wait times may spike to five hours in peak periods. “The tourism sector is at risk of empty flights and stranded travelers—but more importantly, low‑resource communities may lose cultural connections,” the group states.
As the border system continues to falter, a quiet crisis grows among indigenous peoples. The system that was supposed to simplify cross‑border movement is instead becoming a barrier to cultural continuity. The challenge ahead is to balance security with indigenous resilience, ensuring travelers can reach sacred landscapes without paying the price of delay.
