+xHi I was able to travel to Amsterdam on Eurostar (Sept 2022) without issue. First time abroad since conviction three years ago. A few things: I was told that ALL people under visor get a passport marker, Unlock page suggests its an option... although Kent police do seem to peddle misinformation sometimes. I heard from this page I think, that Eurostar block anyone with a criminal record (very old story though) Apparently Europe is short of security staff at the moment because staff are not getting the payments they have been getting. We are now post-Brexit of course, and Kent Police tell me some countries in Europe can take different approaches? (especially Italy apparently?) My offence was possession of indecent images, 18months suspended, in case the severity is relevant. Customs/immigration checks are all in the UK, nothing in Europe. French Customs at St Pancreas. I travelled to Europe after notifying the visor team as per procedure for a short weekend, on business/pleasure (Dutch?) customs at Amsterdam were thorough, asked plenty of questions, but this seemed to be the same approach for everyone. Nothing controversial. I was not stopped or questioned at any time. There did not appear to be any E-Gates on Eurostar, just manual checks. Hope this helps you. Very helpful. Thanks. People only tend to report instances where travel doesn't go to plan, so this is extremely useful. As for passport markers, that is something which will flag up when you apply for a new passport, but it is not a physical marker on the passport, which can be seen by customs in other countries. The old system of Schengen alerts, was the database which used to identify SO, but it no longer contains details of British SO. As for Eurostar, there may be something in their terms and conditions, but they have no way of checking who has a criminal record, so it is unenforceable in practice. In the past, people who were stopped and questioned, because of the Schengen alert system, may have thought, wrongly, that there was a marker on their passport, or they were told they were being refused travel on Eurostar, after customs saw the Schengen alert come up and wrongly interpreted it, to mean they could not travel. In fact, the Schengen alert does not give details of the person's conviction, or tell customs to refuse them entry, it only highlights them as a 'person of interest' to the authorities, but without telling them why the person is of interest. Hence the unpredictability of the custom agent's response. Some people are waved through, others are questioned, and all because customs don't know what the alert means. Terrible system. Glad it no longer applies to us.
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