Immigration+and+Passport+Control

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 * By [|Reem Shamsuddoha] and** **[|Mehrab Al Shaheen]**

__What is E-Passport?__
An E-Passport or [|biometric] passport is a combined paper of electric identity document that uses biometric to authenticate the citizenship of travellers. The passport's cricital information like the name, date of birth and date issued are stored on a tiny Radio Frequence Identification (RFID) computer chip.RFID is an automatic identification method, relying on storing and remotely retrievely data using devices called RFID tags or transponders. Like smartcards the passport design reqiures an embedded contactless chip that is able to hold digital signature data to ensure the integrity of the passport and also the biometric data

__**Types of Biometrics**__
There are various types of biometrics. Fingerprinting, retina scan and voice recognition used widely.

__Fingerprinting__
Fingerprinting requires one to place his/her hand/palm/finger on a machine and then the a machine reads the information and stores it on a database. It reads ridge from different parts of the hand ranging from fingers, plans and even toes. The flexibility of friction ridge skin means that no two finger or palm prints are ever exactly the same. There are three basic fingerprint patterns. They are Arch, Loop and Whor

[|Arch]

__Retina Scan__
A **retinal scan** is a [|biometric] technique that uses the unique patterns on a person's [|retina] to identify them. It uses camera technology and IR illumination to reduce the reflection from the convex cornea to create images detailed structures of the iris. The images are converted into digital templates and mathematics reprentations of the iris. Retina scanning is its stability and can bare trauma and accidents. A single image can last a lifetime.

Speaker recognition, or [|voice recognition] is the task of recognizing people from their voices. Such systems extract features from speech, model them and use them to recognize the person from his/her voice. There are two methods of voice recognition that can be distinguished. For example if the speaker claims to be a certain individual, the voice is used to identity the claim which is known as voice authentication or speaker verification. It is usually used in applications that require security. The expert system requires the person to coperate.

The video is based on biometrics and its different uses. The example using the drivers license is used also used for passport recognition. media type="google" key="-1767772642571223536&hl=en"

__Databases used__
For passport cotrol, the data complied from biometrics is stored in databases that can be accessed from a [|wide area network (WAN)]. For example the US requires all passengers to give their fingerprints and then they take pictures of all passengers to create an ID. Hence when the passenger travels back and forth from the US he can be regonized at the airport. This data is transferred to all US States and embassys so that they don't have to repeat this procedure multiple times.

In other words, the data used is processed into a digital template. That template is then compared to the existing to determine the similarities in the databse.

__Issues__
There are various [|issues] revolving around the use of biometrics. The main concern is the fact that once a biometric method is used like the retina scan or finger printing it has been stored for life as the users can never change their fingerprints which means that a stolen or hacked database with stolen biometrics can cause a lot of problems for the organization.

__Privacy__
Privacy is the major concern regarding anything in this world. When it comes to biometrics privacy can be a serious problem because there has been incidents in the past where passports were stolen and caused the holder a lot of problems. Hence in relation to [|passport control], if a passport is lost or stolen, the original owner is always under a lot of risk as the thief can use it for various reasons. It allows the thief to access personal informational and financial ccounts where the damage could be irreversible. However there are solutions to these problems.In relation to the example give above the passport number of the orginial passport holder can be blocked as soon as the holder informs the administration.

__Biometrics in Passport Control__
Biometrics is used in [|passport control.] Fingerprint recognition, facial recognition and iris scans are most commonly used. The I[|nternational Civil Aviation Organisation] has set specific standards to use in passports. The digital image is in jpeg format and the data is stored in the chip Symbol used for biometric passports [|Source]

__Countries using biometric passports__
[| Europe], [|Australia], [|United States] and [|Singapore] have initiated the of biometric passports where as the Dutch and a few other countries oppose the introduction of biometric passport control.

__Europe__
The European Union planned to introduce fingerprint screening and digital imaging on contactless chips. Their own to protect counterfeit and fraud identification papers. It has been made compulsory for all European Union Citizens since 21 April 2006.

[|Source]
 * From Left to Right:** The contactless chip of the British; Cover of an Italian Biometric; Inside cover of an Italian **Biometric passport**

__United States__
The American version of the biometric passport is known was an Electronic Passport and has digital images placed on the contactless chip. From 9/11 the security has become tight and the chip is about 64 kilobytes and it allows one to add more biometric data.

__Bangladesh__
"Bangladesh being a developing country will take time to convert into biometric passport" says **Mr Navid Haider,** General Manager of [|Emirates] for Bangladesh. The cost will be large and without the help of foreign donars the implementation of biometric passports will be quite impossible as we all know the Bangladesh Government is not powerful enough and financially well off to introduce biometrics to Bangladesh.

Since he was been working with Emirates for a very long time, he had a good idea of the airline industry and biometrics as well. This helped us immensly as research on biometric passports in Bangladesh was not available on the Internet. Below are some questions we asked him and his responses

Yes, I think it will great for Bangladesh. In a country where corruption is apparent it will stop trafficking, passport fraud and using multiple passports for different reasons including terroism and smuggling
 * •Do you think all passports should be converted to biometric?**

Yes, I'm sure you read in the newspapers about all the incidents. Since I am not with the immigration department I am unable to provide statistics but from my own experience, I've seen Emirates face problems with Bangladeshi citizens trying to go to Dubai with passports
 * •What problems does the Bangladesh Airport face due to passports or visas?**

Yes definately
 * •Do you think problems in Bangladesh will be solved regarding passport fraud?**

Yes they need subsidies and other foreign help to start using biometric passport as they need to change immigration rules, purchase expert systems, etc
 * •Do you think converting to biometrics will be costly for the Bangladeshi government?**


 * We would like to thank Mr. Navid Haider for helping us with our research**

__Summary__
From the research done, we can conclude the fact that implementing biometrics in passport control is vital. Terror plots are the world's main concern and in order to reduce that biometrics will play a vital role. Many countries have already started using biometrics and require people to give their fingerprints on arrival and departure. However many are still countries that need to start converting into biometrics. The process is long and costly and will be difficult for countries to convert too.

__Sources__
"Biometrics." __Wikipedia__. 9 Dec. 2006 < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biometric> (An overview of what biometrics are and its differernt applications) "Biometrics." __howstuffworks__. 9 Dec. 2006 < http://science.howstuffworks.com/biometrics.htm> (How the different kinds of biometric systems work) Biometric immigration control technology now live at Manchester Airport. __Public Technology__. 9 Dec. 2006 < http://www.publictechnology.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=4822> (What technology can be used for biometrics and how the Manchester Airport has started using biometrics) "E-Passport Testing Begings in the U.S" IHS. 9 Dec 2006 < http://aero-defense.ihs.com/news/dhs-epassport-testing-sfo.htm> (Use of biometrics in the US) "Voice Recognition". __Wikipedia__. 9 Dec. 2006 < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/voice_recognition> (explanation of voice recognition) "Fingerprinting" Wikipedia. 9 Dec. 2006. < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/fingerprinting> (explanation of fingerpriting __Emirates__. 9 Dec 2006. < http://www.emirates.com/>