LONDON – The United Kingdom’s Home Office has revealed mega plans to make travel frictionless as facial recognition would replace passports at the borders of the kingdom.
In this regard, hi-tech e-gates will be installed at airports of the country which will be so technologically advanced to allow arrivals into the country merely based on facial recognition.
The deployment of the system would bring the UK at par with top destinations like Dubai which uses facial recognition for around 50 nationalities.
Phil Douglas, the director-general of Border Force, while commenting on the development said he had been “really impressed” by e-gate schemes in Australia and Dubai.
“I had to apply for an electronic travel authorisation in advance and used my smartphone to read the chip in my passport. That sent the image of me in the chip to the Australian authorities. When I arrived in Australia, I didn’t even have to get my passport out of my bag. It is a really interesting concept,” he was quoted as saying by the Times.
In a statement, Phil Douglas expressed the intention to establish an ‘intelligent border,’ incorporating significantly smoother facial recognition technology than the current system.
Testing for the forthcoming e-gates is scheduled to commence within this year but Mr. Douglas cautioned industry leaders to anticipate a decline in the utilization of traditional passport desks in the coming two to three years as they will be replaced by new technology.
The United Kingdom is revamping its immigration system and actively implementing an electronic travel authorization (ETA) program for incoming foreign travelers arriving in the UK without the necessity of a visa.
Presently operational for Qataris, the program is expected to expand to encompass nationals from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan in future.
Presently, there exist over 270 e-gates at 15 aerial and rail travel hubs across the UK, all of which necessitate replacement with novel technology leading to enhanced security measures and accelerating the processing of arrivals.
