Biometric testing - immigration clearance, Scott Morrison MP

Travellers entering Australia will soon be checked to see if they have undeclared criminal convictions against a biometrics database before being allowed into Australia, Federal Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Scott Morrison announced this at the Biometrics Institute Asia Pacific conference in Sydney yrecently. Morrison told delegates that the government is investing $700 million over the next six years to modernise Australia’s border management system with specific vigilance on weeding out ex-convicts and people with links to terrorist groups.

It is expected that most travellers will sail through the immigration gates as the system aims at making processing quicker and easier for legitimate travellers. The aim is to have such travellers move through the automated immigration system in ‘less than a minute”.

The future traveller, Morrison said, would provide "border clearance information" as part of the check in process, before commencing their journey.

"The data will then be passed on to Australian agencies for assessment prior to arrival, and this data will be evaluated against security criteria and existing intelligence holdings, so that any risk to Australia's security is identified before arrival,” he said. This means the data will be evaluated against risk criteria such as criminal convictions and links to terrorist groups. A decision is thus made before the traveller arrives.

"The future traveller will then pass through streamlined, automated passport control systems that examine retained biometric data that is contained in the traveller's passport against the traveller upon physical presentation on the border,” said the Minister.

Only identities that generate an alert will need intervention from border protection officials, Morrison said.

"If the person is identified as a potential criminal or terrorist, the border protection officer will intervene and take the traveller to a separate zone for manual processing. If no risks are identified, it is anticipated that visitors will move through automated systems in less than a minute," said Morrison.

He added that e-passports and the SmartGate system, which was introduced in 2005, has “moved from strength to strength” and is now operating at all eight major Australian airports.

By 2016, more than 25 per cent of the 42.9 million passengers expected to pass through major airports in Australia will use the SmartGate system, he said.