Brussels (Belgium) (AFP) — From Sunday, non-EU travellers entering Europe’s Schengen open-borders zone will gradually be photographed and fingerprinted at border crossings, as the European Union rolls out its much-delayed automated border checks.

The aim of the new system? To replace eventually the manual stamp on passports and secure better information-sharing between the bloc’s 27 states.

“This is a significant step towards a more secure and efficient border management system for the EU,” said EU spokesman Markus Lammert.

The border-check system will allow authorities to know when people entered and exited a country, in the belief that it will help better detect anyone overstaying and people refused entry.

Hotly debated for nearly a decade, the system has, however, raised concerns am

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