Met in the queue – now they are camping together for workouts

At first it was impossible to get an appointment, then production crashed, and now the police can not even guarantee a temporary passport.

Outside the Arlanda police, a group of strangers have decided to spend the night in tents to get their passports on time.

They have seats 84, 85, 88 and higher. The police guarantee everyone with a queue number up to 60 a passport today, maybe up to place 70. Over that it is over.

30 meters from the entrance to the police station at Arlanda sits a group of strangers who have gotten to know each other in the queue. In brass chairs, they hold each other’s seats when someone goes to the toilet, help plan food deliveries for the day and wait for a tent where they will sleep at night, together.

– It happened, we started queuing together and then you start talking. It was in the middle of the night so you turn to each other, says Anna Sylwander.

She stood in line at 05. On Monday morning she is going on a business trip and therefore thought she was out in good time when she arranged a passport five weeks ago.

– Then they said that it would take three weeks to get the passport, she says.

Several of those in the queue have waited longer than that for their passports. It’s not just about people who forgot to book during the pandemic, some of them say.

Problems throughout the year

The police write on their website that they expected that the corona restrictions would be released gradually and that the number of applications would increase cautiously. That did not happen. The chaos was also exacerbated by the breakdown of the machine that makes the passports in Finland, one of two in Europe. The problems with the passports are expected to continue throughout the year, even though the police have introduced two shifts and are training more passport officers.

– It’s very sad. We have had people here in the queue who are going to travel to weddings and who have had to leave the queue because they will not make it. They had been waiting for six weeks for their passports, says Anna Sylwander.

“No information available”

A temporary pass can be booked no earlier than 72 hours before the trip, so the group that will be camping together would not have been able to stand in the queue earlier this week, when the queue should have been shorter. Before weekends, and perhaps especially the long weekend that awaits now, the queues are increasing.

– We can not control when we should come and pick up our passports. And there is no information from the police about what it looks like out here, says Gunnar Söder who will also be involved in the tent.

– I fully understand that things can go wrong, but then I think you have to make sure to stay open until 22 here as at other stations. Not until 16, says Anna Sylwander.

The police understand the frustration and are “of course not happy with the situation”, they write on their website. It also states that the police can not guarantee a temporary passport.

Shorter queue for security check

Inside Arlanda’s terminal 5, the long weekend is not marked in the same way. Travelers Petra Astner and Ann Rydén took off to make it through the long queues for the security check that were reported. Petra Astner says that they arrived four hours before the departure time.

– Now we have a lot of hours left, what are we going to do, drink wine?

– Then they have two full people to take care of, it will be very difficult for them, says Ann Rydén.