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Iceland to Register Travellers’ Biometric Data Starting From 2022 Through Border Surveillance Technology

Iceland’s government will launch border surveillance technology created by IDEMIA company,  from 2022,  which will record entry and exit information on every person outside the Schengen Zone wishing to visit Iceland.

The new system, which among other things, protects Schengen Zone’s external borders will record entry and exit data of travellers, through fingerprints and facial portrait. The data then will be added to an EU database, and will be held for three years, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

The primary purpose of this measure is to detect if travellers stay within the Schengen Area for a more extended period than they are permitted to.

The chief of police for the border division of the National Police, Jón Pétur Jónsson, has stressed that it could be used “in case that any person who doesn’t obtain any identification does not identify themselves to the police, it will be possible to identify them by comparing their photo to what’s in the database.”