- Email: [email protected]
Immigration issues
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Immigration issues The immigration sector provides many opportunities for the biometric industry. But while the industry is experiencing some real success, it shouldn’t get complacent or expect the orders to come flooding in – just yet. The immigration sector has the potential to provide a significant area for growth within the biometrics industry. Two key factors are currently driving the need to find an automated approach to passenger handling. On the one hand, a growing number of people are crossing borders on a frequent basis and require quick authentication – many people are even prepared to pay for such a convenience. This growth has been pushed by political impetuses (such as the Schengen Agreement in Europe), the globalization of business, and increased numbers of people visiting neighbouring countries for work and vacation. On the other hand, wars and unrest have given rise to a dramatic increase in the number of people attempting to claim asylum in recent years. “Senior immigration officials are only interested in identifying two or three people from a typical plane load,” said Evan Smith, senior vice president EyeTicket Corporation. “They need the ability to rapidly process frequent travellers and find ways of doing their job properly without using up too much taxpayers’ money.” Various schemes designed to speed up the passenger process have been in place for many years. For example, the INSPASS scheme for frequent travellers in the USA has been well documented. Currently, a variety of biometric techniques are being used to provide quick access to frequent travellers at certain US borders. Israel has also adopted similar programmes, with the Ben Gurion Airport enrolling some 80,000 members to a hand geometry system and reporting over 40,000 movements per month. The possibility of future border control operations is also encouraging, with the Singapore/Malaysia waterside border in the Malaysian state of Jahor tipped to develop an integrated customs/ immigration/quarantine (CIQ) facility which may include biometrics during 2004/2005. 8
Passenger processing Behind the scenes, global associations have been formed with the aim of establishing new approaches to passenger processing. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) introduced the Simplifying Passenger Travel (SPT) initiative in February 2000. The SPT group, which includes many of the world’s major immigration services, airports, airlines and technology suppliers, is currently examining ways of providing a one-stop checking process for passengers by focusing on the whole journey rather than its individual components. As Tom Windmuller, SPT program director, explained: “The passenger process on arrival and departure has been virtually unchanged for the past 50 years. Even with the advent of e-ticketing, several sets of people are still asking the same basic series of questions – ‘who are you and where are you going?’ By automating the process so that this information is only collected once, we can speed up immigration times dramatically.” During July 2001, EyeTicket Corporation and the IATA Simplifying Passenger Travel Interest Group (SPTIG) UK Regional Group announced the first large-scale passenger processing trial in the world to rely entirely on biometric identification. The six-month pilot – commencing later in 2001 – will take place at UK’s Heathrow Airport. During the pilot, EyeTicket’s JetStream Passenger Processing System will process up to 2000 North American frequent travellers, travelling to the UK with British Airways or Virgin Atlantic. Evan Smith told Btt: “Iris technology was chosen because in a high volume public processing application like this, the UK group required a non contact capability and a high level of accuracy.” JetStream will enable passengers who have been enrolled and pre-cleared by the UK Immigration Service to look into a
video camera when arriving at Heathrow’s passport control and, in less than two seconds, have their identity verified and their admission to the UK granted based solely on their iris pattern and real time verification of their status. EyeTicket reports that passengers will still be required to carry their passport in case they are requested to produce it at any point in the journey. It is anticipated that additional trials could be launched at other major airports around the world following the UK pilot. “...These trials will demonstrate that it is indeed possible to streamline passenger processing, reduce waiting times and significantly enhance the travel experience while saving money for everyone involved,” said Windmuller.
Face up Through the International Civil Aviation Organization (UN ICAO) Technical Advisory Group on Machine Readable Travel Documents (MRTD), the United Nations (UN) has also been instrumental in the planning of passenger processing. Ted Dunstone, CEO, Biometix, represented the Hong Kong government as an independent consultant at a meeting of the group in 1999. During the meeting, a number of goals and policy directives for ICAO were identified. Dunstone told Btt: “These included improving the security of MRTDs, developing processes for positive identification and inspection of individuals, improving facilitation, expediting low-risk travellers through inspection controls while achieving a high level of compliance, and attaining global interoperability of travel documents and inspection technology.” A working paper endorsing facial recognition was also produced at the meeting. “Two central factors were critical to this decision,” Dunstone commented. “First is the global acceptability and ease of enrolment of face when compared to other biometrics. Secondly, facial systems were perceived to be less proprietary than other biometric techniques.”
Biometric Technology Today • September 2001
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As Btt reported in July, one of the most recent face recognition applications is at Keflavik International Airport in Iceland as part of a security initiative that resulted from Iceland joining the European Schengen Agreement.
Other biometrics Other biometrics, such as hand geometry, iris recognition and fingerprinting are also making headway throughout the immigration sector. The hand geometry system at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport is now used by 14% of all Israeli passengers at the airport, who are charged a membership fee of around US$10 per year. Meanwhile, EyeTicket reports that 4,000 people were enrolled on its iris system in Charlotte, which has been used 300,000 times. Fingerprint technology is also featuring strongly in a variety of systems including Kuala Lumpur International Airport, several US locations and various European asylum seeker programmes.
Asylum seeking The growing number of people entering certain countries to seek asylum, particularly among member states of the European Union, has resulted in a requirement to identify people as quickly and humanitarianly as possible. Identification is essential in order to reduce the problems of both human error and fraud. In instances where an individual attempts to enter a country at a number of different border controls, governments need to have the facility to cope with replication and to search properly existing records. The EU’s Eurodac regulation, which will come into operation in 2002, will provide rules for the use of a European Union-wide database equipped with a fingerprint recognition system. The database will be used to record and hold the fingerprint data of asylum seekers over the age of 14 and the fingerprints of those over the age of 14 caught illegally crossing a border. It will also be used to compare the fingerprints of individuals found illegally present in a country with the data of applicants for asylum. All fingerprints of asylum seekers will be held for a period of 10 years, unless citizenship is granted in any EU member state. In such instances, the individual’s fingerprint will be removed from the database immediately. For those found illegally crossing a border, fingerprints will be stored for a maximum of
Biometric Technology Today • September 2001
two years, but can be removed earlier if the individual obtains a residence permit, leaves the territory of the member states or acquires citizenship. Fingerprint data of individuals found illegally present in a country will not be recorded in the central database. Many large AFIS companies are making strong in-roads into the asylum area of business. The UK’s decision to adopt an AFIS system was based on several key factors: • The current existence of a database containing around 330,000 finger records; • a strong staff skill base already in place – with both fingerprint bureau and immigration officers fully trained to take fingerprints; • new legislation enabling immigration officials to exchange fingerprint data with the police. According to Martin Giles, Immigration and Asylum Fingerprint (IAF) project manager at the UK Immigration and Nationality Directorate: “Biometrics has enabled us to quickly identify an individual claiming asylum. We need to discover whether a person is known to us already. There are many cases where individuals try to claim asylum under different identities so that they can claim more than one set of benefits.” Since the UK Immigration and Nationality Directorate launched its AFIS system in December 2000, it has reported over 150 arrests of suspected fraudsters. Of these arrests, 80 convictions have now been secured. “We haven’t lost a single case yet,” reported Giles. “We hope that this will lead to the use of biometrics as a deterrent as well as a means of identifying people and detecting offenders.”
System failure Biometrics are clearly playing an important part in the development of automated immigration systems. Not everything always runs smoothly, however, and the technology can often face criticisms. Where failures have been reported, it is interesting to note that many of the problems have not been of a biometric nature. However, as Cy Winter, former chief of operations, International Organization of Migration, US Naval base, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, pointed out, “Unfortunately, in cases of failure, it’s usually the technology that takes the brunt of the criticism.” An important lesson to be learned is that design and integration are crucial. There are
many questions to be answered here. If the biometric is to be used in conjunction with another form of identification, how will the two methods operate? And how will the biometric be tied into supporting products? For example, how will identification information be shared between border controls. Will a Local Area Network be used or will all registrations be sent to a central server at the end of each day? Where will the biometric unit be placed? Will it be subject to diverse climatic or environmental conditions? Is a contact technology – such as fingerprint – acceptable? How are privacy concerns being addressed? Do potential end-users have adequate information about the storage of their biometric template? How will different cultures respond to the technology being used? According to Peter Higgins, principal consultant, Higgins and Associates: “A frequent traveller scheme using speaker verification at the Canada/US border in Montana ran into difficulties because a box containing computer equipment was buried in the ground and became flooded during a flash flood following a winter frost.” Yossi Dagan, executive at EDS Israel told Btt: “The system installed by EDS at Ben Gurion airport was more successful than a similar implementation by our company for the INSPASS scheme because enrolment stations were placed in highly accessible and visible locations. There’s also a different pattern of consumer behaviour amongst Israeli travellers – they’re quicker to adopt new technologies and most travel is international – not domestic, as in the US. In addition, international air travel to and from Israel is concentrated at Ben Gurion. In the US, it is significantly more distributed.”
Future progress? As biometrics take the leap toward wider implementation, they need to demonstrate that they are capable of working with a broad demographic group. Most users of biometric technologies in immigration applications will not be habituated to the technology. Therefore, it is also essential that something is available at the front end to ensure that people are registered properly. As Dunstone pointed out: “Immigration systems are very high load and operate in a very high transaction environment. When talking about automatic passenger clearing, you’re in a very uncontrolled situation: You can’t tell people to sit in front of a booth 9
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SURVEY and look straight ahead. People want convenience and are possibly less tolerant to unexpected disruptions.” With all these questions addressed and an international desire to speed up the growing numbers of people passing through a country’s land, sea and air borders, biometrics can expect to make some progress in the next few years. For those concerned that only the ‘right people’ enter a country, biometrics are being marketed as a tool to provide additional security to keep out undesirables. For those with a more liberal approach to immigration, biometrics are
being seen as a clear winner in the drive to reduce costs, cut the amount of duplicate registration, and, in a genuine refugee case, help locate people who have disappeared. It is likely that many of the asylum applications, which typically favour AFIS technology, will continue their trend of using the bigger, more established AFIS companies. And there will inevitably be some interesting developments with other technologies, notably iris, face and finger. With the continued drive by SPT toward a faster passenger process, the biometrics industry can expect a con-
tinued feel-good factor. But it shouldn’t expect a massive surge of contracts immediately, because, as one vendor commented: “The wheels of bureaucracy turn very slowly - many large governmental and non-governmental organizations with an interest in immigration applications have a long and difficult procurement process to go through.” This article was contributed by Wendy Atkins at Ubiquitous Media. She can be contacted by email at: [email protected]
A Selection of Recent Immigration Projects End user
Technology
Units Date
Number enrolled
Status
Integrator
Card
Live
-
OCR
Australia It is believed that Australia is involved in a biometric system for immigration. No further information is currently available
Canada Hand 5 Function: Border Crossing and passport control. Solution: ID3D from Recognition Systems.
-
Toronto airport Iris and fingerprint 35 2001 Optical Memory Function: Automated border control. Solution: This plan, which uses cards from Drexler Technology Corp, is currently awaiting final approval. A similar installation is expected to be made in 7 other Canadian airports
Finland It is believed that Finland is involved in a biometric system for immigration. No further information is currently available.
Germany Frankfurt Airport Iris 5 Recently ended Solution: EyeTicket passenger processing system. The company reports that discussions to expand the pilot are currently taking place
-
Guatemala Civil Fingerprint ID 2000 Function: Passport authentication and identification. Solution: Printrak Civil AFIS
-
Live
De la Luz Alarmas de Guatemala
-
Hong Kong Immigration Department Fingerprint 2001 Expect 6 million Request for tender due for release July 2001 yes Function: Registration of identity; Verification at pickup; electronic service delivery; automatic passenger clearance; infield portable matching devices; utilization for audit control within immigration. Solution: The request for tender for the main system is currently awaiting release. It is expected that the final system will use a card, although the type of card still needs to be determined.
Iceland Iceland Airport Face June 2001 Function: Border Crossing, Surveillance. Solution: FaceIt Technology from Visionics
-
June 2001
Securitas
-
Israel Ben Gurion Airport Authority Hand geometry 21 1998 Live EDS yes Function: Automated passport control. Solution: Express Entry from EDS. This is combined either with an Israeli bank credit card or with a pre-printed card provided by Ben Gurion Airport. Israel Ministry of Defense (Basel Project)
Face, hand, Contract 70,000 Pending fingerprint start pending Function: Border crossing for frequent travellers. Solution: FaceIt technology and Express Entry from EDS, plus from OTI smart cards
EDS
contactless smart card
Malaysia Kuala Lumpur International Airport Finger 2 Sept 2001 Smart card Function: Border control. Similar systems are expected to be installed at other locations in Malaysia including the Causeway, the Singapore/Johor border, Penang, Kuching and Kota Kinablu.
Mexico Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores (SRE) Fingerprint 3Q 2001 Function: Passport issuing system which will produce up to two million passports per year with embedded security features such as fingerprint information. Solution: Based on De La Rue’s Multiple Identification Document Issuing System (MIDIS). It will accept a facial image, personal data and fingerprint information. Sagem Morpho technology is also built into the system to capture and check the quality of fingerprint information
New Zealand It is believed that New Zealand is involved in a biometric system for immigration. No further information is available at present
10
Biometric Technology Today • September 2001
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End user
Technology Units Date
Number enrolled
Status
Integrator
Card
Trial
Data General
OCR
Peru Instituto de Inmigracion Hand 4 October 1998 Function: Border crossing and passport control. Solution: ID3D from Recognition Systems
UK UK Immigration and Nationality Directorate AFIS 5 Jun 2000 Function: Fast identification of asylum seekers. Solution: Livescan system from Sagem
-
Live
-
-
UK Immigration Service AFIS 18 March 2001 Function: Fast identification of asylum seekers. Solution: Cardscan system from Sagem.
-
Live
-
-
UK Immigration Service AFIS 154 May 2001 Live Function: Fast identification of asylum seekers using GSM link from small ports. Solution: Portable ‘QuickCheck’ (MorphoTouch) from Sagem
-
-
IATA SPTIG UK Regional Group - Heathrow airport Iris
-
-
-
2001
-
Pilot to begin in Autumn 2001
Function: Passenger processing of frequent travellers. Solution: Jetstream Passenger Processing System from EyeTicket
United Arab Emirates Fingerprint 2002 Function: Identification at borders. Solution: A supplier has not yet been chosen, but it is expected that fingerprints will be incorporated into smart cards
Smart card
United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)
Hand geometry 30 at 9 airports Function: Automated passport control. Solution: INSPASS from EDS
various dates
-
Live
EDS
yes
-
Live
Keyware
no
Immigration and Naturalization Service Finger 276 April 2001 Function: Background checks. Solution: Tenprinter and CMS Live Scan Systems from Visionics
Live
Keyware
no
Unknown airports Face and finger Function: Background checks. Solution: Document readers from Visionics
Trial
Imaging Automation
-
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) Face 1997 Function: Border crossing, background checks. Solution: FaceIt technology from Visionics
-
-
Charlotte/Douglas International Airport Iris 3 2000 4000 Live Function: Processes 4,000 US Airways flight crew and airport employees to provide secure admission to the ramp and security bypass in the concourse. Solution: EyeTicket passenger processing system Orlando International Airport Finger 2 2001 Function: Meeting compliance terms of Airport Security Improvement Act 2000. Solution: TouchPrint 2000 Applicant Fingerprint Systems from Identix
-
Reagan National Airport Finger 3 2001 Function: Meeting compliance terms of Airport Security Improvement Act 2000. Solution: One TouchPrint 2000 Applicant Fingerprint System and two Live Scan systems from Identix Washington Dulles International Airport Finger Function: Meeting compliance terms of Airport Security Improvement Act 2000. Solution: Live Scan system from Identix
-
-
-
JFK International Airport Finger Function: Meeting compliance terms of Airport Security Improvement Act 2000. Solution: Live Scan system from Identix
-
-
-
Boston Logan International Airport Finger Function: Meeting compliance terms of Airport Security Improvement Act 2000. Solution: Live Scan system from Identix
-
-
-
Chicago O’Hare International Airport Finger Function: Meeting compliance terms of Airport Security Improvement Act 2000. Solution: Live Scan system from Identix
-
-
-
Survey Contacts Company
Name
Tel
Fax
Email
Biometix Cy Winter EDS EDS Israel Electronic Identification EyeTicket Corporation Gerry Gardner Higgins and Associates IATA SPT Group Identix International Biometric Industry Association Kuala Lumpur International Airport Printrak Recognition Systems UK Immigration Service Visionics Corporation Waterside IT Solutions
Ted Dunstone Cy Winter David Troy Yossi Dagan David Crawford Evan Smith Gerry Gardner Peter Higgins Tom Windmuller Dale Alston Rick Norton Nick Aris Cameron Triebwasser Tracy Timmer Martin Giles Frances Zelazny Shukor Ahmed
+61 2 9209 4599 +1 561 781 2893 +1 202 414 4827 +972 9 9708107 +1 604 684 6906 +1 703 827 5700 +44 118 970 0859 +1 202 625 7780 +41 22 799 2966 +1 925 479 1265 +1 703 250 0206 +603 877 68001 +1 714 238 2058 +1 408 341 4143 +44 208 760 8474 +1 201 332 9213 +603 79 55 33 50
+61 2 9209 4155 +1 202 414 8452 +1 604 689 2669 +1 703 827 5705 +44 777 902 6915 +1 202 625 7781 +1 925 5517194 +1 714 238 2049 +1 408 341 4101 +1 201 332 9313 -
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
Biometric Technology Today • September 2001
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Immigration issues The immigration sector provides many opportunities for the biometric industry. But while the industry is experiencing some real success, it shouldn’t get complacent or expect the orders to come flooding in – just yet. The immigration sector has the potential to provide a significant area for growth within the biometrics industry. Two key factors are currently driving the need to find an automated approach to passenger handling. On the one hand, a growing number of people are crossing borders on a frequent basis and require quick authentication – many people are even prepared to pay for such a convenience. This growth has been pushed by political impetuses (such as the Schengen Agreement in Europe), the globalization of business, and increased numbers of people visiting neighbouring countries for work and vacation. On the other hand, wars and unrest have given rise to a dramatic increase in the number of people attempting to claim asylum in recent years. “Senior immigration officials are only interested in identifying two or three people from a typical plane load,” said Evan Smith, senior vice president EyeTicket Corporation. “They need the ability to rapidly process frequent travellers and find ways of doing their job properly without using up too much taxpayers’ money.” Various schemes designed to speed up the passenger process have been in place for many years. For example, the INSPASS scheme for frequent travellers in the USA has been well documented. Currently, a variety of biometric techniques are being used to provide quick access to frequent travellers at certain US borders. Israel has also adopted similar programmes, with the Ben Gurion Airport enrolling some 80,000 members to a hand geometry system and reporting over 40,000 movements per month. The possibility of future border control operations is also encouraging, with the Singapore/Malaysia waterside border in the Malaysian state of Jahor tipped to develop an integrated customs/ immigration/quarantine (CIQ) facility which may include biometrics during 2004/2005. 8
Passenger processing Behind the scenes, global associations have been formed with the aim of establishing new approaches to passenger processing. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) introduced the Simplifying Passenger Travel (SPT) initiative in February 2000. The SPT group, which includes many of the world’s major immigration services, airports, airlines and technology suppliers, is currently examining ways of providing a one-stop checking process for passengers by focusing on the whole journey rather than its individual components. As Tom Windmuller, SPT program director, explained: “The passenger process on arrival and departure has been virtually unchanged for the past 50 years. Even with the advent of e-ticketing, several sets of people are still asking the same basic series of questions – ‘who are you and where are you going?’ By automating the process so that this information is only collected once, we can speed up immigration times dramatically.” During July 2001, EyeTicket Corporation and the IATA Simplifying Passenger Travel Interest Group (SPTIG) UK Regional Group announced the first large-scale passenger processing trial in the world to rely entirely on biometric identification. The six-month pilot – commencing later in 2001 – will take place at UK’s Heathrow Airport. During the pilot, EyeTicket’s JetStream Passenger Processing System will process up to 2000 North American frequent travellers, travelling to the UK with British Airways or Virgin Atlantic. Evan Smith told Btt: “Iris technology was chosen because in a high volume public processing application like this, the UK group required a non contact capability and a high level of accuracy.” JetStream will enable passengers who have been enrolled and pre-cleared by the UK Immigration Service to look into a
video camera when arriving at Heathrow’s passport control and, in less than two seconds, have their identity verified and their admission to the UK granted based solely on their iris pattern and real time verification of their status. EyeTicket reports that passengers will still be required to carry their passport in case they are requested to produce it at any point in the journey. It is anticipated that additional trials could be launched at other major airports around the world following the UK pilot. “...These trials will demonstrate that it is indeed possible to streamline passenger processing, reduce waiting times and significantly enhance the travel experience while saving money for everyone involved,” said Windmuller.
Face up Through the International Civil Aviation Organization (UN ICAO) Technical Advisory Group on Machine Readable Travel Documents (MRTD), the United Nations (UN) has also been instrumental in the planning of passenger processing. Ted Dunstone, CEO, Biometix, represented the Hong Kong government as an independent consultant at a meeting of the group in 1999. During the meeting, a number of goals and policy directives for ICAO were identified. Dunstone told Btt: “These included improving the security of MRTDs, developing processes for positive identification and inspection of individuals, improving facilitation, expediting low-risk travellers through inspection controls while achieving a high level of compliance, and attaining global interoperability of travel documents and inspection technology.” A working paper endorsing facial recognition was also produced at the meeting. “Two central factors were critical to this decision,” Dunstone commented. “First is the global acceptability and ease of enrolment of face when compared to other biometrics. Secondly, facial systems were perceived to be less proprietary than other biometric techniques.”
Biometric Technology Today • September 2001
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As Btt reported in July, one of the most recent face recognition applications is at Keflavik International Airport in Iceland as part of a security initiative that resulted from Iceland joining the European Schengen Agreement.
Other biometrics Other biometrics, such as hand geometry, iris recognition and fingerprinting are also making headway throughout the immigration sector. The hand geometry system at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport is now used by 14% of all Israeli passengers at the airport, who are charged a membership fee of around US$10 per year. Meanwhile, EyeTicket reports that 4,000 people were enrolled on its iris system in Charlotte, which has been used 300,000 times. Fingerprint technology is also featuring strongly in a variety of systems including Kuala Lumpur International Airport, several US locations and various European asylum seeker programmes.
Asylum seeking The growing number of people entering certain countries to seek asylum, particularly among member states of the European Union, has resulted in a requirement to identify people as quickly and humanitarianly as possible. Identification is essential in order to reduce the problems of both human error and fraud. In instances where an individual attempts to enter a country at a number of different border controls, governments need to have the facility to cope with replication and to search properly existing records. The EU’s Eurodac regulation, which will come into operation in 2002, will provide rules for the use of a European Union-wide database equipped with a fingerprint recognition system. The database will be used to record and hold the fingerprint data of asylum seekers over the age of 14 and the fingerprints of those over the age of 14 caught illegally crossing a border. It will also be used to compare the fingerprints of individuals found illegally present in a country with the data of applicants for asylum. All fingerprints of asylum seekers will be held for a period of 10 years, unless citizenship is granted in any EU member state. In such instances, the individual’s fingerprint will be removed from the database immediately. For those found illegally crossing a border, fingerprints will be stored for a maximum of
Biometric Technology Today • September 2001
two years, but can be removed earlier if the individual obtains a residence permit, leaves the territory of the member states or acquires citizenship. Fingerprint data of individuals found illegally present in a country will not be recorded in the central database. Many large AFIS companies are making strong in-roads into the asylum area of business. The UK’s decision to adopt an AFIS system was based on several key factors: • The current existence of a database containing around 330,000 finger records; • a strong staff skill base already in place – with both fingerprint bureau and immigration officers fully trained to take fingerprints; • new legislation enabling immigration officials to exchange fingerprint data with the police. According to Martin Giles, Immigration and Asylum Fingerprint (IAF) project manager at the UK Immigration and Nationality Directorate: “Biometrics has enabled us to quickly identify an individual claiming asylum. We need to discover whether a person is known to us already. There are many cases where individuals try to claim asylum under different identities so that they can claim more than one set of benefits.” Since the UK Immigration and Nationality Directorate launched its AFIS system in December 2000, it has reported over 150 arrests of suspected fraudsters. Of these arrests, 80 convictions have now been secured. “We haven’t lost a single case yet,” reported Giles. “We hope that this will lead to the use of biometrics as a deterrent as well as a means of identifying people and detecting offenders.”
System failure Biometrics are clearly playing an important part in the development of automated immigration systems. Not everything always runs smoothly, however, and the technology can often face criticisms. Where failures have been reported, it is interesting to note that many of the problems have not been of a biometric nature. However, as Cy Winter, former chief of operations, International Organization of Migration, US Naval base, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, pointed out, “Unfortunately, in cases of failure, it’s usually the technology that takes the brunt of the criticism.” An important lesson to be learned is that design and integration are crucial. There are
many questions to be answered here. If the biometric is to be used in conjunction with another form of identification, how will the two methods operate? And how will the biometric be tied into supporting products? For example, how will identification information be shared between border controls. Will a Local Area Network be used or will all registrations be sent to a central server at the end of each day? Where will the biometric unit be placed? Will it be subject to diverse climatic or environmental conditions? Is a contact technology – such as fingerprint – acceptable? How are privacy concerns being addressed? Do potential end-users have adequate information about the storage of their biometric template? How will different cultures respond to the technology being used? According to Peter Higgins, principal consultant, Higgins and Associates: “A frequent traveller scheme using speaker verification at the Canada/US border in Montana ran into difficulties because a box containing computer equipment was buried in the ground and became flooded during a flash flood following a winter frost.” Yossi Dagan, executive at EDS Israel told Btt: “The system installed by EDS at Ben Gurion airport was more successful than a similar implementation by our company for the INSPASS scheme because enrolment stations were placed in highly accessible and visible locations. There’s also a different pattern of consumer behaviour amongst Israeli travellers – they’re quicker to adopt new technologies and most travel is international – not domestic, as in the US. In addition, international air travel to and from Israel is concentrated at Ben Gurion. In the US, it is significantly more distributed.”
Future progress? As biometrics take the leap toward wider implementation, they need to demonstrate that they are capable of working with a broad demographic group. Most users of biometric technologies in immigration applications will not be habituated to the technology. Therefore, it is also essential that something is available at the front end to ensure that people are registered properly. As Dunstone pointed out: “Immigration systems are very high load and operate in a very high transaction environment. When talking about automatic passenger clearing, you’re in a very uncontrolled situation: You can’t tell people to sit in front of a booth 9
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SURVEY and look straight ahead. People want convenience and are possibly less tolerant to unexpected disruptions.” With all these questions addressed and an international desire to speed up the growing numbers of people passing through a country’s land, sea and air borders, biometrics can expect to make some progress in the next few years. For those concerned that only the ‘right people’ enter a country, biometrics are being marketed as a tool to provide additional security to keep out undesirables. For those with a more liberal approach to immigration, biometrics are
being seen as a clear winner in the drive to reduce costs, cut the amount of duplicate registration, and, in a genuine refugee case, help locate people who have disappeared. It is likely that many of the asylum applications, which typically favour AFIS technology, will continue their trend of using the bigger, more established AFIS companies. And there will inevitably be some interesting developments with other technologies, notably iris, face and finger. With the continued drive by SPT toward a faster passenger process, the biometrics industry can expect a con-
tinued feel-good factor. But it shouldn’t expect a massive surge of contracts immediately, because, as one vendor commented: “The wheels of bureaucracy turn very slowly - many large governmental and non-governmental organizations with an interest in immigration applications have a long and difficult procurement process to go through.” This article was contributed by Wendy Atkins at Ubiquitous Media. She can be contacted by email at: [email protected]
A Selection of Recent Immigration Projects End user
Technology
Units Date
Number enrolled
Status
Integrator
Card
Live
-
OCR
Australia It is believed that Australia is involved in a biometric system for immigration. No further information is currently available
Canada Hand 5 Function: Border Crossing and passport control. Solution: ID3D from Recognition Systems.
-
Toronto airport Iris and fingerprint 35 2001 Optical Memory Function: Automated border control. Solution: This plan, which uses cards from Drexler Technology Corp, is currently awaiting final approval. A similar installation is expected to be made in 7 other Canadian airports
Finland It is believed that Finland is involved in a biometric system for immigration. No further information is currently available.
Germany Frankfurt Airport Iris 5 Recently ended Solution: EyeTicket passenger processing system. The company reports that discussions to expand the pilot are currently taking place
-
Guatemala Civil Fingerprint ID 2000 Function: Passport authentication and identification. Solution: Printrak Civil AFIS
-
Live
De la Luz Alarmas de Guatemala
-
Hong Kong Immigration Department Fingerprint 2001 Expect 6 million Request for tender due for release July 2001 yes Function: Registration of identity; Verification at pickup; electronic service delivery; automatic passenger clearance; infield portable matching devices; utilization for audit control within immigration. Solution: The request for tender for the main system is currently awaiting release. It is expected that the final system will use a card, although the type of card still needs to be determined.
Iceland Iceland Airport Face June 2001 Function: Border Crossing, Surveillance. Solution: FaceIt Technology from Visionics
-
June 2001
Securitas
-
Israel Ben Gurion Airport Authority Hand geometry 21 1998 Live EDS yes Function: Automated passport control. Solution: Express Entry from EDS. This is combined either with an Israeli bank credit card or with a pre-printed card provided by Ben Gurion Airport. Israel Ministry of Defense (Basel Project)
Face, hand, Contract 70,000 Pending fingerprint start pending Function: Border crossing for frequent travellers. Solution: FaceIt technology and Express Entry from EDS, plus from OTI smart cards
EDS
contactless smart card
Malaysia Kuala Lumpur International Airport Finger 2 Sept 2001 Smart card Function: Border control. Similar systems are expected to be installed at other locations in Malaysia including the Causeway, the Singapore/Johor border, Penang, Kuching and Kota Kinablu.
Mexico Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores (SRE) Fingerprint 3Q 2001 Function: Passport issuing system which will produce up to two million passports per year with embedded security features such as fingerprint information. Solution: Based on De La Rue’s Multiple Identification Document Issuing System (MIDIS). It will accept a facial image, personal data and fingerprint information. Sagem Morpho technology is also built into the system to capture and check the quality of fingerprint information
New Zealand It is believed that New Zealand is involved in a biometric system for immigration. No further information is available at present
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SURVEY
End user
Technology Units Date
Number enrolled
Status
Integrator
Card
Trial
Data General
OCR
Peru Instituto de Inmigracion Hand 4 October 1998 Function: Border crossing and passport control. Solution: ID3D from Recognition Systems
UK UK Immigration and Nationality Directorate AFIS 5 Jun 2000 Function: Fast identification of asylum seekers. Solution: Livescan system from Sagem
-
Live
-
-
UK Immigration Service AFIS 18 March 2001 Function: Fast identification of asylum seekers. Solution: Cardscan system from Sagem.
-
Live
-
-
UK Immigration Service AFIS 154 May 2001 Live Function: Fast identification of asylum seekers using GSM link from small ports. Solution: Portable ‘QuickCheck’ (MorphoTouch) from Sagem
-
-
IATA SPTIG UK Regional Group - Heathrow airport Iris
-
-
-
2001
-
Pilot to begin in Autumn 2001
Function: Passenger processing of frequent travellers. Solution: Jetstream Passenger Processing System from EyeTicket
United Arab Emirates Fingerprint 2002 Function: Identification at borders. Solution: A supplier has not yet been chosen, but it is expected that fingerprints will be incorporated into smart cards
Smart card
United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)
Hand geometry 30 at 9 airports Function: Automated passport control. Solution: INSPASS from EDS
various dates
-
Live
EDS
yes
-
Live
Keyware
no
Immigration and Naturalization Service Finger 276 April 2001 Function: Background checks. Solution: Tenprinter and CMS Live Scan Systems from Visionics
Live
Keyware
no
Unknown airports Face and finger Function: Background checks. Solution: Document readers from Visionics
Trial
Imaging Automation
-
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) Face 1997 Function: Border crossing, background checks. Solution: FaceIt technology from Visionics
-
-
Charlotte/Douglas International Airport Iris 3 2000 4000 Live Function: Processes 4,000 US Airways flight crew and airport employees to provide secure admission to the ramp and security bypass in the concourse. Solution: EyeTicket passenger processing system Orlando International Airport Finger 2 2001 Function: Meeting compliance terms of Airport Security Improvement Act 2000. Solution: TouchPrint 2000 Applicant Fingerprint Systems from Identix
-
Reagan National Airport Finger 3 2001 Function: Meeting compliance terms of Airport Security Improvement Act 2000. Solution: One TouchPrint 2000 Applicant Fingerprint System and two Live Scan systems from Identix Washington Dulles International Airport Finger Function: Meeting compliance terms of Airport Security Improvement Act 2000. Solution: Live Scan system from Identix
-
-
-
JFK International Airport Finger Function: Meeting compliance terms of Airport Security Improvement Act 2000. Solution: Live Scan system from Identix
-
-
-
Boston Logan International Airport Finger Function: Meeting compliance terms of Airport Security Improvement Act 2000. Solution: Live Scan system from Identix
-
-
-
Chicago O’Hare International Airport Finger Function: Meeting compliance terms of Airport Security Improvement Act 2000. Solution: Live Scan system from Identix
-
-
-
Survey Contacts Company
Name
Tel
Fax
Biometix Cy Winter EDS EDS Israel Electronic Identification EyeTicket Corporation Gerry Gardner Higgins and Associates IATA SPT Group Identix International Biometric Industry Association Kuala Lumpur International Airport Printrak Recognition Systems UK Immigration Service Visionics Corporation Waterside IT Solutions
Ted Dunstone Cy Winter David Troy Yossi Dagan David Crawford Evan Smith Gerry Gardner Peter Higgins Tom Windmuller Dale Alston Rick Norton Nick Aris Cameron Triebwasser Tracy Timmer Martin Giles Frances Zelazny Shukor Ahmed
+61 2 9209 4599 +1 561 781 2893 +1 202 414 4827 +972 9 9708107 +1 604 684 6906 +1 703 827 5700 +44 118 970 0859 +1 202 625 7780 +41 22 799 2966 +1 925 479 1265 +1 703 250 0206 +603 877 68001 +1 714 238 2058 +1 408 341 4143 +44 208 760 8474 +1 201 332 9213 +603 79 55 33 50
+61 2 9209 4155 +1 202 414 8452 +1 604 689 2669 +1 703 827 5705 +44 777 902 6915 +1 202 625 7781 +1 925 5517194 +1 714 238 2049 +1 408 341 4101 +1 201 332 9313 -
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
Biometric Technology Today • September 2001
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