Keeping out the undesirables

Airport passenger screening to step up ahead of the 2015 free labour market

* Published: 29/08/2011 at 12:00 AM
* Newspaper section: News

As Thailand prepares to open its doors to the free flow of Asean labour in 2015, immigration police are working on fortifying the "national gate" to keep out undesirables.

The free movement of labour, which starts in 2015, has been agreed by members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as part of a move to a single economic market. The Asean Economic Community (AEC) will create a regional economy with a market of up to 600 million consumers.

Visanu: Screening out the bad guys

Pol Maj Gen Visanu Prasarttong-osoth, deputy immigration chief, said the bureau will introduce a new fingerprint screening system to prepare for the changes.

"When people are able to enter the country more easily, we could end up being contaminated with more criminals," he said. New technology will help monitor the arrival of passengers at Suvarnabhumi Airport.

The Immigration Service has spent 76 million baht buying 16 Auto Channel machines, to be installed later this year, which should help better identify criminal suspects.

The Auto Channel uses biometrics technology to identify people by scanning their fingerprints.

Passengers insert passports into the machines, which also scan their fingerprints, Pol Maj Gen Visanu said.

"The process takes just 20 seconds," he said.

The system is also expected to address problems of overcrowded lines at immigration checkpoints and reduce the number of immigration officers processing passengers.

Immigration officers, meanwhile, can turn their attention to passengers they already suspect may be involved in criminal activities.

This will allow them to better target unwanted people, Pol Maj Gen Visanu said.

Thai passengers and foreign diplomats will be the first to be processed by the machines.

Another measure the bureau believes can help protect the national borders against dishonest entry into the country is the use of Advance Passenger Processing.

Under APP, airlines are required to send name lists of their passengers to the bureau so that it can examine them in advance.

This will allow officers to reject the entry of suspicious characters even before they board the planes.

Thai passengers will no longer have to fill out departure and arrival cards, because their information will have been checked by immigration officers ahead of their arrival.

Adoption of APP has been delayed for eight years because of privacy concerns which prevent airlines sharing passengers' information with the bureau.

Immigration Bureau chief Wibul Bangthamai has appointed Pol Maj Gen Visanu to unblock the legal difficulties.

The technology will be introduced next year.