By Tim Ferguson, 9 October 2007 16:12
NEWS
Gatwick airport is the latest UK airport to trial biometric fingerprinting technology to boost immigration security.
The BioDev pilot has been running in the airport's North Terminal since 18 September and is due to end in April next year.
At present only arrivals from Sierra Leone who have been issued with biometric visas in the capital Freetown will be included in the trial.
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A Home Office spokeswoman explained that Sierra Leone was chosen because the main flight into Gatwick from the country arrives at a quiet time with a low number of passengers. This makes it logistically easier for immigration staff to trial the tech. In addition, citizens of Sierra Leone require visas to enter the UK.
On arrival, passengers will have their fingerprints and photos checked against a database by immigration officials, and those attempting illegal entry into the UK will be refused entry.
The project is part of an overhaul of the UK's border security. UKvisas, a joint Home Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office unit that runs the UK's visa service, is already collecting fingerprints from visa applicants in more than 100 countries around the world.
The aim is to stamp out multiple visa applications and identity fraud.
Immigration minister Liam Byrne said fingerprint visas are fast becoming "our first line in defence against illegal immigration" as they establish people's identities "beyond doubt" before they enter the UK.
Byrne added biometrics are part of a triple ring of security for the UK's borders, which involves identifying individuals before they travel to the UK, checking them on the border and rolling out ID cards for foreign nationals in the UK from 2008.
The Border and Immigration Agency is aiming to use biometric measures for all non-visa nationals arriving from outside the European Economic Area by 2011.
As part of this, the Home Office recently spent $4.4m on new fingerprint scanners to be used in embassies around the world.
Comments
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1. Karen Challinor
the government seems to have adopted fingerprints as a de facto standard for identification, despite the lack if independent scientific studies which to show false positive and false negative rates.
they are now putting scanners in embassies around the world and soon when the ID card is rolled out every man, woman and child with the possible exception of the extremely rich, the famous or politicians and their families will be required to submit their fingerprints and other biometric information to be included in a national register, the exceptions may be put in a separate, more secure, register for security purposes
it is becoming rapidly more economic for the criminal element of society to develop methods to fool biometric scanners and access the national id register, some of these attempts will fail, some will succeed and remain undetected
so when, not if, our biometric identity is compromised to which government department should we apply to be issued with new biometric measurements, and will this involve surgery ?
2. Chris Goodman
At last looks to be a plan to stop the unwanted. But what happens when a rejected says "I claim asylum"?