Date set: Europe's much-delayed entry-exit system to begin
The EES aims to digitise border crossings, monitor non-EU citizens, identify suspected criminals, and enforce the 90-day stay limit within 180 days.
British passport holders will need to provide fingerprints and facial biometrics, with children under 12 exempt from fingerprint requirements.
The system will have a phased implementation until 9 April 2026, becoming fully operational at all external border crossings from 10 April 2026.
The European Travel Information and Authorisation System (Etias) is now expected to start between October and December 2026, with its fee increasing from €7 to €20.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
2 hours ago
- The Sun
Four-star migrant hotel hides Hilton signs after asylum seekers arrive in apparent bid to hide use from protesters
A FOUR-star hotel given over to asylum seekers has taken down its Hilton signs — in an apparent bid to hide it from anti-migrant protesters. It was converted for all-male arrivals in November despite concerns from locals that it is near several schools. 10 10 10 Now bosses at The DoubleTree by Hilton in Cranford, West London — a few miles from Heathrow — have removed all trace of its old identity, covering up the fact it ever hosted tourists and business travellers. Pictures show a large beige tarpaulin spread over a logo across the top of the building. Others have gone or been covered up from the entrance and car park area. Rooms at nearby DoubleTree hotels still open to the public cost between £91 and £260 a night. And snaps from the Cranford hotel last August show off its comfy rooms along with a gym and restaurant, though it is unclear if either of those are available to asylum seekers. Its website simply tells guests trying to book that no rooms are available 'for those dates'. Handing the hotel to migrants without warning has been criticised by a host of locals, including many of Asian heritage. Umme Khanzada, who runs a local environment group, told The Sun on Sunday: 'The hotel has totally changed the community. 'We are not against people coming to the UK or immigration, but the way this hotel has been opened is wrong.' The mum, 49, added: 'My daughter tells me they stare at her. I don't feel safe walking through the streets. I went out to the park and one of the migrants told me, 'This is our park. It's not your park anymore'. 'I think they have covered the signs up to protect DoubleTree and Hilton's reputation.' Emails between residents and Hounslow Council show locals being told: 'This decision was made by the Home Office without prior consultation with the local authority, stakeholders, or residents. 'We understand the frustration and uncertainty this has caused.' Last night ex-Tory minister Sir Alec Shelbrooke fumed: 'What the Government are doing quite frankly represents their utter failure on immigration. And the management of Hilton are taking the King's shilling from the Government, but they're not willing to let the public know that.' The DoubleTree is leased by the Home Office through Clearsprings Ready Homes. Its boss Graham King, dubbed the 'Asylum King', has a reported net worth of £750million. 10 Hilton were approached for comment. In London, a coach full of asylum seekers arrived at a controversial four-star Canary Wharf migrant hotel in the middle of the night. The Britannia International Hotel was closed to paying customers and converted into taxpayer-funded 'surge' accommodation for illegal arrivals last month. When open to the public, a standard room cost up to £425 — though it will cost the Home Office £81 a night. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp told The Sun: 'This is one of the most luxurious hotels people can only dream of staying in, right in the heart of London's financial centre. This is an insult to law-abiding citizens.' The Government said: 'Since taking office, we have removed 35,000 people with no right to be here — up 28 per cent on the previous year. From 400 asylum hotels open in summer 2023, costing almost £9million a day, there are now less than 210. We want them all closed by the end of this Parliament.' ROOMS at the DoubleTree in Cranford come with massive double beds and TVs, the hotel's snaps show. Some also have lounge chairs and tables where residents can sit and work, as well as grand dressing tables and mirrors. 10 10 ARRESTS AT DEMO CLASHES 10 10 PROTESTERS clashed with police yesterday in demonstrations across the UK outside hotels housing asylum seekers. Nine arrests were made after pro and anti-migrant groups scuffled at the Thistle City Barbican in Islington, North London. Similar scenes played out at the New Bridge Hotel in Newcastle. In Manchester, far-right group Britain First held a march calling for mass deportations.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Laura Hamilton hits back at cruel troll who said she was 'too old' to wear bikinis as she shares a glimpse from her lavish holiday
Laura Hamilton has hit back at a cruel troll who said she was 'too old' to wear bikinis as she shared a glimpse from her lavish holiday. The A Place In The Sun star, 43, has been enjoying a family holiday at Forte Village resort in South Sardinia. Joined by her children Rocco, 11, and Tahlia, 10 - who she shares with ex-husband Alex Goward - Laura has shared an array of gorgeous snaps as she soaked up the Italian sun. However, the blonde beauty was forced to hit back at a comment from one follower who cruelly said she was too old to wear a bikini. In a clip shared to Instagram, Laura was sat poolside as she flaunted her incredible figure in a blue and white swimsuit. She lounged on a day bed with her daughter as they waved while the camera panned out. In a caption, Laura made a poignant jibe at the troll as she penned: 'Who decides when we're 'too old' for anything? 'I recently read a comment saying I was too old to wear a bikini… and it honestly made me stop and think for a second. 'But then I reminded myself, life's way too short to worry about what other people think. 'Today I'm wearing a swimsuit, not because of the comment I read but because I wanted to and I feel comfortable in it!' 'We all have days when we feel self-conscious, but we deserve to enjoy the sunshine, the beach, the pool, whatever makes us happy, no matter our age and whether we choose to wear a swimsuit or a bikini!! 'Live your life and feel good in your own skin' Fans flocked to comments on her post as many were shocked by the troll's unkind remarks. Comments included: 'You keep going and you look amazing. While you've got it flaunt it'; 'Today I'm wearing a swimsuit, not because of the comment I read but because I wanted to and I feel comfortable in it,' she penned 'Absolutely not! Bikinis don't come with age restrictions—just confidence requirements! The only age limit is the age you stop caring what other people think'; 'People that say negative comments are just jealous! Do whatever makes you feel happy'; 'Wow, glad you didn't listen, some people should keep their comments to themselves. We are all different and we should do and wear what makes us happy.' Earlier this year, Laura revealed that she went on a date with Shaggy - and he made her pay. Laura, who split from husband Alex Goward, 44, in 2022 after a decade of marriage, shared details about her dating life in a new interview on Friday. Speaking exclusively to DailyMail Laura confirmed that she was still single and having fun as she recalled a surprise date from over 20 years ago. Recounting meeting up with Shaggy, she explained: 'I met him for coffee and I had to pay for it. It was at Heathrow airport. 'I'd been working with him, and he said, 'I really want to meet up with you and talk about work opportunities.'' As she soaked up the sun, the blonde beauty hit back at a comment from a follower who said she was too old to wear a bikini Confirming that he made up a song and sang it to her, she continued: 'God, that was over 20 years ago. I'm not sure he'd recognise me now.' Adding of her dating life now, Laura said: 'I'm busy working and dating and having fun, and I prefer to find people naturally rather than being on dating apps. 'I like to go out and meet people who have common interests. I made a decision going forward that I want to keep that aspect of my life private. 'I think it's really important that if I'm dating people - and I have been dating people - if they're not in the public eye, then they have a right to privacy. 'Just because I'm in the public eye – you never know what their job is, and they might need privacy for security reasons, and so I'm always mindful of that.' Laura shares two children Rocco, 12, and Tahlia, 10, with her ex-husband Alex, they split after 13 years together. In a statement at the time, she wrote: 'This isn't something I ever thought I'd be saying but, after 13 years of being together Alex and I have separated. 'Our children are and always will be our number one priority and we would respect privacy for our family at this time.' She has been a presenter on A Place in the Sun since 2012 and regularly posts pictures from her sun drenched holidays and filming trips on Instagram. Laura also explained that her time on the Channel 4 show has seen her through so many life changes, notably her engagement, the births of her children and her divorce. The former Dancing On Ice star described feeling like she had 'failed' amid their separation, which saw Laura move out of the couple's Surrey family home. She said: 'We are co-parenting, and it works. But even that, you know, I kind of felt like I had failed.'
Times
4 hours ago
- Times
And so to Vienna, the last waltz on my epic Grand Tour
I'm not sure why the British ambassador to Austria agreed to meet me. I hadn't even sent a letter of introduction from a reputable sponsor, as Grand Tourists once did, begging diplomats for an audience in the cities they visited. 'A young man with limited German,' mine would have read. 'In fact, a limited young man — but desirous of learning statecraft.' Instead I sent an email. Yet here I am, in the embassy on Jauresgasse in Vienna, being shown around by Lindsay Skoll, also the UK's permanent representative to the UN. I'm doing my best to put my company at ease, as instructed by Thomas Ka, the etiquette expert I had met in Paris. I seem to have succeeded: Skoll is talking for Britain. 'What you want as an ambassador is the ability to convene,' she says, leading me into a grand dining room where she hosts dignitaries. The walls are hung with portraits of her predecessors: solemn, patrician men. I wonder what they'd have made of Skoll — ebullient, humble and a bit of a mischief-maker. 'As fun, you always seat the French ambassador here,' she says, gesturing to a chair opposite a painting of Wellington at Waterloo. 'And you wait until they notice. We always have a laugh.' Talk turns to Vienna's ball season, which peaks in winter and includes a diplomatic ball for waltzing and networking. 'It isn't just some elitist thing,' Skoll says. 'It looks delightfully whimsical and old-school but still holds real currency today.' I ask if I can come. To my surprise she says yes. Before my tour I'd never have dared; aristocratic living breeds dangerous levels of confidence. Now the end has begun. I had arrived from Venice by train the day before. Past Verona, with its church domes and bell towers, the Adige River joined us, a constant companion into the foothills of the Alps. The hills grew steeper, cultivated with vines, their cordons lifted like pleading arms to the sun. Then came Alpine meadows, gossamer waterfalls and the Brenner Pass — once one of the few land routes out of Italy, where porters hauled Grand Tourists in sedan chairs. I took it all in from my first-class cabin. By now I was convinced that rail is the best way to travel through Europe; but the network of railway lines that made my trip possible also doomed the Grand Tour by opening up the Continent. Besieged by the masses, aristocrats retreated into the fortress of the Alps. Their last stand still echoes in the brays of après-skiers. After my ten-hour journey, the first thing I did in Vienna was see a man about a horse. That man, in tweed and a bowler hat, met me outside my hotel: the Sacher, a grande dame as decadent as the sachertorte cake invented by one of the Sacher family. He ushered me into a carriage, or fiaker, with a bottle of grüner veltliner chilling in a bucket on a table (£200 for 40 minutes, for up to four people; We trotted through the city, horns blaring behind us, across the Hofburg imperial gardens, en route to the Golden Hall of the Musikverein — Vienna's most prestigious concert venue — for an evening of Mozart. I disembarked and collected my ticket: a supérieur seat in the front row, so the music would reach me sooner than the masses (from £60pp; 'I'm glad someone else dressed up,' said William Felton, 62 — a dashing Wisconsinite in a tailcoat — nodding at my bow tie as I sat down. But we were both shown up when the orchestra appeared in baroque costume and powdered wigs. After a hush the music began, enriched by the hall's renowned acoustics. I drifted into a state of reflection on my tour. It is one thing to do the original Grand Tour; a modern Grand Tourist, though, explores not just stone relics but the ruins of a mindset. From the 17th century, posh youths ventured overseas, eager to prove their superiority to a Britain that still indulged the idea. Yet even in the Tour's earliest days, a moral revolution was beginning to grip Europe. • Read our full guide to Vienna The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche argued that aristocratic values were quietly recast by the disenfranchised. Nobility became arrogance, pride became vanity, and humility and equality were elevated to virtues. In England Puritans sneered at peacocking Cavaliers; in France revolutionaries gave nobles a free trim. The modern western mindset was gradually born, and it's why the prancing of Grand Tourists strikes us as ridiculous. As the final piece, Eine kleine Nachtmusik, played, my welling eyes were dams about to burst. I was still humming it the following day when I met the dance tutor Aga Bohun for a lesson in the Viennese waltz. Only late Grand Tourists performed the dance, Bohun explained; it didn't enter polite society until the Congress of Vienna in 1814 (from £41pp for a 50‑minute workshop; Its debut caused a minor scandal, and I could see why. Bohun drew my body perilously close and placed my right hand on her waist. Then she eased me into those famous orbital steps, telling me to move with force towards her, which promised a head-on collision until, at the last second, she slipped gracefully away. Then came the handover. 'You lead and I follow,' she said, as we rehearsed in silence ahead of our finale: The Blue Danube, by the Viennese maestro Strauss, at a proper ballroom pace. Gaining in confidence, I managed a few half-turns at speed before swirling into an elegant exit step. 'Well done!' Bohun said afterwards, pressing play on her stereo. As Strauss filled the room, she explained one last tradition. 'At a ball you must ask the lady to dance,' she explained. 'Offer your right hand and then ask, 'Darf ich bitten?' It means, 'May I have this dance?' And then you perform a hand-kiss.' Bohun fell silent, as if to demonstrate the waltz's commanding principle: the man must take control. Suddenly panic gripped me. But there was someone in the room to help: the amused spirit of Thomas Ka. 'You must kiss but not kiss, touch but not touch,' he said, wagging his finger. I took a deep breath. 'Darf ich bitten?' I asked Bohun, extending my arm, finding her hand. I bowed my head. I had been outfenced in Paris, blistered in the Alps, wine-soaked in Rome and bled dry in Venice. But when I rose, here in Vienna, I like to think I rose as something resembling a Ling was a guest of Byway, which has ten nights' B&B from £2,630pp, including rail travel from the UK ( and Hotel Sacher Vienna, which has room-only doubles from £509 ( • Part one: the most unusual way to see Paris• Part two: the off-piste way to see the Alps• Part three: a novel way to see Rome and an eye-opening art class• Part four: the beautiful spot on my Grand Tour that left me speechless
