Biometrics to catch immigration frauds

By TOM PULLAR-STRECKER - The Dominion Post

Last updated 09:08 30/03/2009

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Immigration New Zealand says a Yemeni citizen with alleged links to 9/11 terrorists would have been detected before he tried to enter New Zealand in 2006, had biometric checks been in place.

The revelation comes as the department makes its case for a $100 million-plus investment in biometric technology.

Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali spent four months in New Zealand before suspicions were alerted when he enrolled at a flying school. He was subsequently deported to Saudi Arabia.

An Immigration spokeswoman says that under a biometric system, Mr Ali would have been denied a visa issued in Dubai. Identity programme manager Arron Baker told a conference in Wellington that Mr Ali's biometric information was recorded on a watchlist. He had evaded detection by changing his name.

Mr Baker says 316 cases of identity (ID) fraud detected by Immigration New Zealand between July 2005 and January 2008 may be the "tip of an iceberg".

The volume of ID fraud detected by biometric checks in Britain and the United States was far higher and had given Immigration "a serious level of concern".

Using biometrics, British border control has detected more than 5300 cases of people swapping identities.

Immigration would have to invest in its own biometric systems to check visitors' identities if it was to avoid "falling behind".

The number of frauds is increasing and the quality of false travel documents is improving, but the bigger risk comes from people travelling on legitimate documents that have been fraudulently obtained, Mr Baker says.

Legislation that would allow Immigration to collect biometric data such as fingerprints and face scans passed its second reading in Parliament three weeks ago.

Immigration has meanwhile completed a detailed business case for an overhaul of information technology systems, expected to cost more than $100 million, which is required to support the use of biometrics. It has been sent to the Government for consideration.

Immigration's strategy is to identify criminals, illegal immigrants and potential terrorists before they travel to New Zealand. Of the identity fraud cases, 190 were detected at the New Zealand border, which was "too late".

Checks done last year through Customs' advanced passenger processing system and other controls helped intercept 73 people intending to travel to New Zealand with false identities.

Mr Baker says under Immigration's new business model, people would be required to provide biometric identification when they applied for visas to travel here.

"At that stage, we would conduct our identity establishment work, which we do currently, but with the benefit of biometric decision-support tools.

"The journey to New Zealand continues and as passengers travel, check in and board, we are proposing to deploy mobile or wireless identity-verification capabilities at key control points on the journey. Finally, identity verification and biometric enrolment for first-time travellers is envisaged at the New Zealand border on arrival."

Visitors would be greeted by automated self-service kiosks that would speed the arrival process, while checking people's identity against biometric-enabled watchlists of undesirables.

Recent frauds involved a Cameroon man who arrived in Auckland travelling on a fake French passport that successfully mimicked infrared and ultraviolet security features, and an Iranian travelling on a counterfeit Maltese passport.

A privacy impact assessment of the Immigration Bill was conducted last year. A further study will be done once funding has been approved for the Immigration business transformation project and the bill is passed.

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