Now comes news that London Heathrow Airport will also adopt the new electronic border gates in 2010 with stated aims being to reduce the lengthy processing times at Heathrow’s border control.

The new gates mean that travellers aged 18 and over who possess biometric passports will be able to re-enter the UK using the facial recognition technology that compares their passport picture against a database whilst at the same time cross-referencing the -passport to any blacklists held by the UK Border Agency.

Initial reports suggested that the new gates could be seen as early as January 2010 although the Home Office has denied committing to any concrete date for now.

The gates form part of the larger Electronic Borders (e-Borders) programme that can also scan similar biometric passports from other holders across Europe and comes at an estimated cost of £1.2 billion to the UK government. The new programme will theoretically cover close to 90 percent of all UK-bound travellers according to statistics published by the Control of Immigration report from 2006.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson has hailed the new advancements which will allow speedy passage of legitimate travellers at immigration control, thereby also freeing up UKBA officers to focus more time on high risk travellers instead. The technology, Johnson claims, shows that Britain is at the very forefront of border security.

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Johnson has praised the new facial recognition technology which provides for speedier passage for legitimate travelers to the UK through immigration control, which then frees up officers from the UK Border Agency to concentrate on travelers they deem to be high risk.

The Home Secretary made the proclamation during an inspection of the new facial recognition technology gates at the Gatwick Airport North Terminal. The self service gates at the airport have played host to over 950,000 passengers who have had their biometric details scanned and compared against a list of watch criteria before being granted access to the UK, although the process itself takes mere minutes.

Facial recognition gates provide passengers with the option of choosing between joining the queues at the traditional, manned counters or accessing the self service gates. The gates work by scanning each individual’s face and comparing it with their passport’s digital photo. If the match is accurate thee-passport gates then open enabling a simple border crossing.

The gates are still attended to by officers from the UK Border Agency who monitor the traffic flow and deal with any person rejected by the gates. UKBA staff also make manual checks on all passengers where the feel it is appropriate.

The new facial recognition technology has already proved to be popular a Stansted, Cardiff, Birmingham, Manchester, and Bristol Airports.

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The UK Border Agency has unveiled the mobile service in Sheffield with the team from the Vulcan House biometrics division being the first in the country to establish a mobile enrolment team or MET. The team will use the technology throughout the midlands and north into Scotland. An additional team will be based in Croydon to cover the southern part of the country.

Currently, legislation stipulates that when any foreign nationals apply for UK identity card authorities must take biometric information of the individuals face to create a fixed identity which can be compared to existing information. The practice is normally undertaken at the biometric enrolment centre of the local Home Office but studies have shown that some applicants are unable to make the journey to the office, normally for medical reasons. It is these applicants who will be a priority for the UKBA to assist.

The new MET program will allow applicants to make an enrolment request for the testing to take place at a private address. This can be their place of residence or even hospital or care home. The new service will also enable enrolments for migrants who are in prisons or detention centres.

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The queue jumping system is already in place to a lesser extent at both Liverpool and Luton airports which provide customers leaving the country with the capacity to do so for a fee.

Passengers may also book their preffered seats up to 24 hours in advance for a small fee. Within 24 hours the service is free of charge.

The additional £50 charge would then allow passengers to utilise one of the new high-tech fast gates which are currently being installed. The new gates feature readers for biometric passports which feature electronic chips and contain details of facial mapping. Biometric passports were introduced in 2006 but to date the total number of Britons with a biometric passport still numbers under 20 million.

For those who do hold a biometric passport the new service will be able to do so without any additional charges, along with any EU nationals holding biometric documentation. A new subscription proposal will be launched to target those UK citizens with the old passports.

The queue jumping scheme will also be made available to VIP or ‘trusted’ travellers from outside the UK and it is hoped that the scheme will in time pay for the £7 million upgrade.

Britons wishing to obtain one of the new biometric passports can do so by renewing their current passport early, which costs around £80.

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It is projected that the rise in the cost for the immigration card will raise an extra €20 million in additional revenues for Ireland.  So far about 1,500 people from around the European Union have been issued the new biometric ID cards.  Nearly 200 people each day are fingerprinted as part of the new biometric ID process. 

An immigration official who commented on the new rate for immigration ID cards said “Nobody has complained about the fee increase yet, either because many are unaware of it or don’t want to bring trouble on themselves by asking too many questions.  Irish people would certainly complain if they were asked to pay such an amount.”

Others feel that the prices increase will have negative effects on the country.  The chief executive officer of the Immigration Council of Ireland, Denise Charlton, said “I believe it will have a detrimental impact on the number of foreign students who travel here from countries such as China. They generate €900m a year and I think we should not do anything that makes it more expensive for non-EU nationals to reside and study in Ireland.”

www.dcu.ie

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