WRITTEN ON February 22nd, 2006 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Uncategorized
One of the many things that I wonder, but have never done anything about, is what are the real pros and cons of the UK’s e-Borders programme (see Statewatch or Spy blog.
Will this improve life? Is there a fuss and I missed it? Will it work?I can see the procurement isn’t very smooth – the only potential suppliers I’ve spoken to have dropped the idea.
Bruce Schneier is pretty sceptical about the value of US-VISIT, which is the counterpart I suppose. He reckons the 1000 people stopped for “criminal or immigration violations” come a cost of US $15m each. (And remember if these violations were life-threatening they would be called terrorism. So it probably includes a fair share of students overstaying on their visas.)The e-Borders Programme will create a joined up modernised intelligence-led border control and security framework. Enhanced information about passengers and their movements, and its communication through the use of new technology, processes and procedures will allow Immigration Service and other agencies including Police, Customs and Excise, Security Services to work more closely together to maintain the integrity our border control, target activity against those who have no right to be in the UK and assist in the fight against terrorists and criminals.
It will allow us to introduce pre-boarding electronic checks of all persons flying to the UK, which will let us stop known security risks travelling. It will also collect information on when people arrive and whether they leave, which will help us stop people staying in the UK when they have no right to. Bona fide travellers will also gain from faster clearance at points of entry.
At post:
The e-Borders systems will collect both arrivals and departure information, together with immigration status and other related details. Staff who deal with visa applications overseas will be able to check applications against that database, for example to check the credibility of applicants or their sponsors. Supported by biometric visas, this will enhance the effectiveness of the entry clearance operation.
Pre-entry controls:
Carriers will provide advance passenger information (API) and passenger name
records (PNR) electronically. Passenger details (including names, dates of birth, nationality and travel document details) will be checked against multi-agency watchlists prior to boarding a flight. Under an authority to carry scheme the Immigration Service will be able to prevent specified categories of passenger from travelling to the UK (including where they are security risks or because we think they will abuse the immigration control) and require carriers to submit passenger details for a check against relevant Government databases before departure. Any carrier that fails to seek authority to carry or has been refused authority to carry a particular passenger, but nonetheless lets him/ her travel to the UK, will be subject to a penalty.
The provision of API and PNR data will allow the border agencies to identify persons of interest before they travel to the UK and to target further action in anticipation of their arrival in the UK. This might include deploying immigration officers from the intelligence unit to operate surveillance on a particular flight to help identify a suspected facilitator, or for police officers to immediately apprehend a passenger wanted for questioning.
In country:
Because both arrivals and departure information will be collected, as will the immigration conditions of entry, we will have a much clearer picture of passengers’ movements in and out of the country. This wealth of information will help border control, law enforcement and intelligence agencies, and other Government departments to target their activity. In particular it will enable IND to measure compliance with entry conditions and make it easier to identify those who have no entitlement to be in the UK.
The database of information and increasing collection of biometric data will make it harder for people to conceal their identity to frustrate our controls and make it easier to remove those who have no right to be in the country.
2 Responses to “e-Borders and the US-Visit programme”
Unfortunate direct experience has shown that the UK Immigration service and UKVisas are “broken.” A quick glance at the official statistics shows why Britain is now so widely hated:
http://www.fco.gov.uk/Files/kfile/GlobalStats2005,0.pdf
The (non-refundable) application fee for a 6 month UK Visitor’s Visas is now over 60 pounds per person. In several regions including Southern Asia and the Carribean, the rejection rate is scandalous: around 70 per cent.
This means that ordinary decent people can’t visit their relatives (however sick), attend weddings, attend funerals etc., etc.
There is a similar picture for temporary UK Student Visas.
The UK Government has also recently “reformed” the UK Working Holidaymaker Visa: Such people can still stay for 2 years, but now must only work for 12 months.
All this is without discussing the disgraceful way that applicants are treated at UK Visa offices or the strong rumours that Visas can be bought.
The whole effect is to impede the free movement of ordinary decent people and to create a profitable market for “people traffickers.” Once people have reached the UK (by whatever means, and at whatever cost) they are now less likely to return home.
Remember that many of these people once looked up to the UK as a beacon of freedom, decency and fairness. Many of their families fought for the UK over several centuries. The current UK government now automatically regards them as dishonest and threatening: Self-fulfilling?
A ‘person in a position to know’ told me that the PNR data at overseas airports makes it onto (or more likely, in the general direction of) the e-Borders system by being taken from the airline’s check in system, put onto a USB drive, and handed to the pilot of the aircraft. The pilot then hands it over on arrival.
The extent of the early warning delivered is, I think, fairly clear from this. The airline systems are actually pretty well set up for delivering PNR data (which they would be, one supposes), but the joining up networks bit seems sufficiently hard for that not to be a great deal of help.