Reconstruction of Norwegian border station
More border crossers between Norway and Russia makes it necessary to expand the facilities and numbers of controllers. The station can soon get eGates for automatic biometric control.
A brand new border station will be built by 2015, but in order to facilitate for fast control of people over the next few years, intermediate measures will be taken.
A working group headed by the former head of Police in eastern Finnmark, Håkon Skulstad, on Friday presented the short-term action plan.
- Our prognosis indicate it could be around 400,000 border crossings annually already by the year 2014, says Håkon Skulstad to BarentsObserver.
The suggestions from the working group include twelve more passport controllers and nine additional customs officers at Storskog, Norway’s only land border crossing to Russia.
One new lane for incoming traffic and one extra lane out of Norway will be constructed. Additional gates for passport control will be built inside the border station and it might also be that portacabins for passport control will be places outdoor for both incoming and outgoing traffic. In peak-hours, passport control could also take place between the vehicles in the lanes.
Border traffic prognosis made by the working group indicates a 300 percent increase in people believed to cross the Norwegian – Russian by the year 2014. Last year 140,000 border crossers showed their passports at Storskog border station, expected to increase to around 400,000 by 2014.
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- There are several reasons why the number of border crossers will increase in the next few years, explains Håkon Skulstad. First of all more of the inhabitants on Russia’s Kola Peninsula gets multiple entry visas, and the Norwegian border town of Kirkenes is becoming a popular shopping destination. Last year Norway and Russia signed an agreement to facilitate for visa-free travel for people living less than 30 kilometres from the border. The visa-free travel will likely be possible in 2012.
The reconstruction of the border station will divide travellers into different lanes depending on their status. Visa-free border crossers will get their own lanes with far easier control than regular travellers.
Read also: Parliament wants 24h border opening
The border station will also arrange for possible eGates in and out of Norway, where passport and biometric data can be controlled within seconds, making Storskog one of the most modern passport control posts in Europe.
