flarmip

Just arrived at ARN on BA786. Brilliant service by the crew despite a fully booked flight, and a (near) on-time arrival.

However, upon approaching passport control, everyone who isn't a Swedish citizen or resident has been held and told to wait indefinitely. Police officers shouted that no-one could proceed to the desks.

No explanation has been given for this, which has now been going on for over an hour. The desks are manned, and there is no queue - just nobody is allowed to go up to them.

Reports on social media suggest this may also be affecting other non-Schengen arrivals.

Does anyone know what's happening? All of the cabin crew have been allowed through - except the captain who, to his credit, is "sticking with the ship".

This is frustrating to say the least.

Pigeon49

I've a tenner on an IT problem, or a Rooshun hack.

citiflyerUK

Seems to be an IT issue affecting all at Arlanda. Still not fixed with the police suggesting it could take 12 hours more.

Swedish citizens are being allowed through with a visual check of their documents. The reports seem to say all non-swedes (including other EU passport holders) are being stopped.

dddc

If they don't get this resolved soon they're going to have to hold passengers on planes soon (unless there's a lot of room airside - been a while since I went to ARN). Depending on the number of planes coming in, the baggage hall may be very busy too!

citiflyerUK

Been reported elsewhere that they have started to allow others through at T2 (which BA uses) after pressure from passengers (not sure what that means). No update about T5 at the moment. At T2 at least BA is likely to be the only non-Schengen flights so probably manageable.

At T5 there are also not that many non-Schengen flights arriving in the evening.

flarmip

After 1.5 hours, a significant number of people started getting agitated - probably not helped by the complete lack of information or timescales. The border guards relented and started processing people manually. Makes you wonder why that couldn't have been done from the beginning...

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LETTERBOY

You don't really expect governments to do things that make sense, do you?

carrotjuice

Unrelated, but similar happened on a trip to OSL in June. Airport personnel initially were as good as furniture who did nothing, then someone from a later shift took over and started ushering those with immediate flight connections to the front� only to be stopped by some power tripping border guard who refused to let people through.

danielflyer

I�m curious what the legal repercussions would be if an EU citizen were to simply show their documents and insist on going through?

The lack of a backup IT system or procedure shouldn�t be the passenger�s problem. Why not take a photo of each passport, obtain the passenger�s destination address, and manually process everything later?

I don�t think a court would agree that an IT issue is a justifiable reason to deny or delay entry.

steveholt

I don't think not listening to border police, even if their instructions aren't justifiable, would go over well.

Kgmm77

A potential charge against Sweden for Breach of Union law.

danielflyer

I would never walk through the border without authorization, but a previous poster noted that the guards relented after receiving pushback from passengers. They certainly cannot give preferential treatment to Swedes.

EU law is very clear here:
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-cont...X%3A32016R0399

Wanting and getting are two entirely different things. The officers may have wanted people to wait in this situation, but that is not what they are entitled to get.

Maybe I am just too brazen, though. Before I got my EU citizenship, on several occasions border guards asked why my residence permit was in my passport instead of a a card / only had X days left / etc. �This is what I have, it�s valid� always sufficed. Maybe they would have liked to see a longer period of validity or a different format, but they had to take what I gave them.

Valid documents are valid documents.

southlondonphil

I'm expecting this sort of thing to happen a lot when the new EU Entry/Exit database eventually goes live

flarmip

Indeed, that's what I'm wondering about. Did this (and in particular the preferential treatment of Swedes) constitute a breach of the Schengen Border Code or other EU law? Do I have any recourse as an EU citizen, beyond making a complaint?

That would have been me as the OP

mylabel

It's likely they still have other system to verify Swedish citizens/residents online so these people are being processed first. This has happened to me once in CDG when the French were allowed through first and EU second and non EU last. You can complain but it's unlikely you will get anything out of it.