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Immigration Daily News Morrison promises immigration clearance in under one-minute
Morrison promises immigration clearance in under one-minute
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 yesterday. 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.
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I think that the people of the world will have less trust of our australian government and immigration system now that it is about border protection at all levels.
With all due respect to everyone who is a member of Migration Alliance (and my apologies if I offend anyone), I fail to see how this is NOTgoing to promote the repetition of a Mohammad Haneef-like affair, where being in possession of a simcard or being an unfortunate relative of some corrupt and/or criminal element or being a victim or some political vendetta by some politically motivated character assasination will result in the targeting of people in less than 1 minute (or thereabouts) without opportunity to answer queries or presumption of error...
AND further, how is Fortress Australia going to access people's personal information? given that we, AS Australians and IN Australia, are afforded some protection under privacy laws, does this meant that non-Australians will NOT be afforded the same protection? Does it mean that non-Australians will be obliged to provide information or else not be allowed to implemet their tourist/family visiting plans, alread paid for? how much of a criminal record does one need to have to be stopped in the migration zone and be sent back?
What could be the legal implications of all of this? (because there's always some...)
This is a disturbing development which reeks of boogey man fear with potentially disastrous results... am I understanding this wrongly or am I just 'dazed and confused' Now, (please) explain it to me like I'm a four-year-old AND I will be more than happy to be corrected, as always...