EU’s Entry-Exit border control system mistakenly identifies two identical twin sisters in Romania

The European Union's new digital border control system EES mistakenly identified two identical twin sisters in Romania back in May of this year, highlighting some of the platform’s operational problems, according to Politico Europe.

The EES, launched on April 10, replaced passport stamps with a European database that uses biometric data, including facial recognition and fingerprints. Its implementation was delayed for four years due to technical difficulties.

Some of the EES’s problems persisted, a fact confirmed even by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, and in May of this year, a British citizen was stopped at the Cluj-Napoca Airport by border police for allegedly overstaying the legal period of stay in the Schengen Area.

The authorities found that her departure from the European Union was not recorded on the platform following an alleged trip to Amsterdam in April. The woman explained, however, that it was not she who had been in the Netherlands, but her identical twin sister, who has her own passport and has never traveled to Romania.

Nevertheless, the woman, a Politico employee, was detained for approximately 15 minutes for checks, as police suspected that she had lent her passport to her sister.

“EES appeared to have confused the two women based on their identical facial scans, and possibly their identical last names, dates of birth, and nationalities - the only things they have in common as far as the platform is concerned. They have different fingerprints, first names, and crucially their own passports,” Jon Stone wrote for Politico.

The woman was allowed to fly in the end.

However, the EES’s problems remain. Niovi Vavoula, chair in cyber policy at the University of Luxembourg, who has advised lawmakers on the technicalities of EES, said the incident was caused by the improperly registered exit for the twin in Amsterdam, as well as a poorly conducted check by the Romanian authorities in Cluj. The Romanian Border Police were supposed to also look at the woman’s fingerprint or passport, which would all be different from those of her sister. 

After internal checks, the Romanian Border Police confirmed that the EES had functioned correctly, but that border personnel had not followed all operational procedures. The institution stated that the data had been corrected in the platform and that the employees responsible had already received additional training. 

radu@romania-insider.com

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