Major change coming to passport management – and Brits will probably be completely happy | Politics | News | EUROtoday

British households coming back from vacation may skip passport queues beneath new plans to make use of facial recognition know-how at ports. Powerful cameras will match peoples’ faces with their passport photos and automobile particulars logged in Government databases.

This would imply folks arriving within the UK at ports wouldn’t must get out of their vehicles and would drive by way of “contactless corridors”. The know-how, which has been on trial since November at 4 ports, may reduce the queues that construct up throughout vacation intervals.

One supply who has seen the know-how in operation mentioned: “At the moment you have to stop and hand your passports through the window of your car to the Border Force officer who puts them through a reader then gives them back to you.

“Under the new system, instead of getting your passports out you look at the camera. They have these really high-powered cameras that can look through the windscreen and take a picture of your face and match it to the face on the database.

“Assuming all is well, then you get the green light and you drive through the border. The other option is that you wind down your window and you all look at an iPad. The aim is to use the technology on maritime and rail routes then on air routes.”

Former Border Force chief Tony Smith instructed the Daily Express the Home Office ought to take into account introducing a “biometric entry / exit system” to offer officers a greater understanding of who’s within the UK.

He mentioned: “People could be photographed when they enter the country and again when they leave, and we would know exactly how many people are coming and going rather tan relying upon unreliable ONS data like we do now.”

Mr Smith mentioned that the Channel migrant disaster and folks exploiting “weaknesses in our visa system” to “dupe” officers into letting them into the UK must be triggering extra alarm bells in Whitehall.

Almost 40,000 of the asylum claims had been linked to small boat arrivals, prompting fears a lot of them are arriving by different routes solely to then submit a declare for cover.

Discussing how the scheme could possibly be prolonged to boost border safety, Mr Smith mentioned: “All visa applicants are fingerprinted at the point of application, as are asylum seekers.

“We can even access the original visa application and get a copy of the passport. Then if posts abroad are issuing visas to migrants who are pretending to be visitors, students or workers when their true intention is to come to claim asylum and live here, we can do something about it.”

iProov, a specialist biometric safety firm taking part within the trials, mentioned its facial comparability know-how was designed to determine travellers inside their autos and hyperlink the confirmed passenger ID with the automobile during which they’re travelling.

Andrew Bud, its founder and chief govt, mentioned: “By bringing the latest identity verification technology to this critical domain, we aim to create a streamlined and efficient experience for all passengers that doesn’t compromise on speed or accuracy, and they never have to leave their vehicles.”

A Home Office spokesman mentioned: “We use a wide range of techniques and technology to protect our border security, but we do not comment on trials of specific equipment.”