Long queues at border control as airports in Germany hit by IT outage
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The IT outage affecting federal police systems used to check incoming passengers.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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BERLIN - German airports were hit by a nationwide IT outage affecting police systems at border control on Jan 3, causing disruption and longer immigration queues for passengers from outside the European Union’s Schengen travel zone.
“There is currently a nationwide IT disruption,” a federal police spokesperson said by phone, forcing officers to manually process passengers arriving from outside the passport-free Schengen area.
The cause was not immediately known.
The outage caused queues of people waiting at border control at several German airports, including Frankfurt, the country’s busiest.
Berlin airport confirmed longer waiting times at immigration for non-Schengen passengers.
“We can confirm that since around 2pm today (9pm in Singapore), there have been disruptions to border control for flights to and from the non-Schengen area,” said a spokesperson for Duesseldorf airport, saying passengers were being provided with water.
The regional public broadcaster WDR reported that passengers were waiting for two hours at immigration while others were being kept on the plane. REUTERS
