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HIGH SECURITY: A traveller has her fingerprints scanned at New York airport on entering the United States. The security authorities want airlines to fingerprint departing passengers too. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON - THE US government wants commercial airlines and cruise lines to prepare to collect digital fingerprints of all foreigners leaving the country, under a security plan the industry has condemned as costly and burdensome.
Under the plan announced on Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) expects airlines and maritime companies to collect the biometric prints of exiting passengers and transmit them to the department within 24 hours of their departure.
The plan is part of the USVisit programme launched after the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and is intended to automate the processing of visitors entering and exiting the country, using fingerprints and digital photographs to help find criminals, potential terrorists and illegal immigrants.
While the programme has succeeded in recording nearly 100 million people entering the country since 2004, the DHS has struggled to implement the exit portion. The government wants the exit programme to be introduced by January next year.
'We have built an effective entry system and, combined with the proposed exit system, we will have made a quantum leap in America's border security,' Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in a statement.
But the industry has given the proposal a collective thumbs-down. At a time when carriers are struggling with safety concerns, high fuel costs and passenger complaints, the economic impact on companies, passengers and the government is expected to exceed US$3.5 billion (S$4.7 billion), industry lobbyists said.
'This is ludicrous,' said Mr Doug Lavin, regional vice-president for the International Air Transport Association (Iata), who said government, and not airlines, should collect fingerprints.
'We cannot afford anything in the billions to support a programme that should be a government programme,' he said. Fingerprinting an estimated 33 million departing foreign passengers a year will result in 'delayed departures and missed connections', he said.
Iata has also condemned the proposals, saying it was not a very 'responsible approach'.
'Border protection and immigration are government responsibilities. Airline counter staff are not a substitute for trained border patrol officers,' said Mr Giovanni Bisignani, Iata's director general and CEO.
Iata also estimated that if the prints needed to be collected at check-in, then passengers would no longer be able to check-in online, while if they were taken at the boarding gates, it could take between 45 and 60 seconds per passenger, potentially causing delays.
But the government says the move was recommended by the commission looking into the Sept 11, 2001 attacks and is a congressional requirement if the US visa waiver programme is to be expanded to new countries from June next year.
The visa waiver programme allows residents of selected countries, including Singapore, to visit the United States without a visa.
Meanwhile, Singapore Airlines has said it will comply with whatever the law requires, but pointed out that unlike border security agencies, airline staff do not have access to intelligence capabilities, law enforcement support and other specialised logistics to carry out the task.
'Costs of border protection should be borne by governments, whose interests are maintained by protecting borders. At the end of the day, if there are extra costs borne by airlines, these will be passed on to the travelling public,' SIA spokesman Stephen Forshaw said.
There will be a 60-day comment period for the proposed rule.
LOS ANGELES TIMES-WASHINGTON POST
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KARAMJIT KAUR
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