There was chaos at Athens’ international airport, “Eleftherios Venizelos,” on Thursday as the passport control machines suddenly stopped working. Long queues formed, and tensions ran high amongst frustrated passengers.
The malfunction affected the passport control machines for arrivals, particularly impacting travelers from non-Schengen countries. According to state broadcaster ERT, several of the automatic European passport control machines in the arrivals area were out of order, causing significant inconvenience for numerous passengers. Out of approximately ten control machines, only three were operational.
Under security regulations, each automatic passport control machine should have a police officer present, but only three were staffed during this incident, as reported by the state broadcaster.
While the problem was eventually resolved a few hours later, there has been no official explanation as to why passport control was understaffed.