By Nick Heath, 14 January 2008 16:28
NEWS
All applicants for visas to enter the UK will face biometric fingerprint checks from the end of this month.
The fingerprint database contains the records of more than one million previous visa applicants.
silicon.com's A to Z of Biometrics
Click on the links below to find out everything you'll need to know about biometric security.
A is for Accuracy
B is for Behavioural biometric
C is for Cash machine
D is for Database
E is for Ear
F is for Facial recognition
G is for Gummi bears
H is for Hand geometry
I is for Iris
J is for Juan Vucetich
K is for Keystroke dynamics
L is for Liveness testing
M is for Mobile phones
N is for Network security
O is for Oxford
P is for Palm
Q is for Queues
R is for Registration
S is for Signature verification
T is for Twins
U is for Universality
V is for Voice verification
W is for Walk
X is for X-ray
Y is for Young
Z is for Zurich Airport
The system will cover 133 countries, three-quarters of the world's population, and has already uncovered 10,000 visa applicants connected to earlier immigration cases and asylum requests and detected 500 cases of identity swapping.
This includes a Nigerian man trying to enter the UK under a different identity after serving an eight-month prison sentence.
The database has been rolled out in stages since last year and will be fully up-and-running by the end of January, three months ahead of schedule and costing only £37m to set up - nearly half of its original £70m budget.
Immigration minister Liam Byrne congratulated Border and Immigration Agency officials and set out 10 milestones to strengthen border protection this year, which include introducing compulsory ID cards for foreign nationals who want to stay in the UK and introducing spot fines for employers not carrying out right-to-work checks.
He said in a statement: "The public wants stronger borders. They want us to shut down the causes of illegal immigration and hold newcomers to account, deporting rule breakers where necessary."
Byrne added: "They also want a compassionate system, which makes and enforces decisions fast when we have obligations to honour."
Comments
There are 5 comments. Join the discussion
1. Hugh
Unfortunately the equipment they use is hopeless. I know someone who needed a visa to visit the UK required ten attempts to capture a fingerprint at the visa centre (and she wasn't a manual labourer). They were about to refuse her a visa on grounds of faulty hardware!
2. Jeremy Wickins
""The public wants stronger borders. They want us to shut down the causes of illegal immigration and hold newcomers to account, deporting rule breakers where necessary."" Hmmmm - who are these people want stronger borders? I don't know anyone that demands that people who wish to visit the UK should have their lives made more difficult. For a country that relies on travellers a great deal (business and tourism), we seem to be particularly stupid - make it hard, stop 'em coming. Just look at the USA - visiting rates down spectacularly since the introduction of "hand over all your information to the NSA". I will not go to any country that makes it so difficult to get in, not even if it affects my career - a form of the social exclusion I am researching.
3. Karen Challinor
any manufacturers of fingerprint scanners please not my previous comments on the ones the government will buy for general use
you may make all singing all dancing ones that cannot be spoofed and can tell the difference between a living finger and one thats no longer attached to it's owner
but HMG aren't going to buy those
HMG will buy the cheapest, tattiest ones it can get it's hands on and then trust them implicitly
4. anonymous
The government allows unrestricted immigration, ensuring plenty of media coverage about the issue, then tries to introduce by stealth an ID card system firstly for immigrants in the hope that we won't see what they're up to (i.e. trying fall for their usual divide and rule trick whereby we accept its introduction because it won't affect us...then we'll get it later.)
5. anonymous
I agree with the Anon, comment from Surrey. I am applying for a UK visa and am disgusted to find out that they expect me to hand over my biometric information, which will put me into their systems world wide. One more way to control the sheeple of this world, and help bring about their One World Government.
I am seriously thinking about not going. We the people must stand up for our rights!