Smart gates that use facial recognition to identify passengers will soon be in use at the UK’s borders, according to the director of the UK’s Border Force.
Phil Douglas told The Times that trials would take place this year to move the UK towards “much more frictionless facial recognition.”
Existing e-gates
E-gates already in place use a combination of passport data and facial recognition, meaning that passengers must have their physical travel document on hand when using the gates, so that data encrypted on the document can be matched to the traveller. This can cause delays are passengers must position their document correctly on a reader, hold it in place, look at a camera, remove any glasses and so on.
Facial recognition alone
The new system would take this one step further, with facial recognition alone needed to identify the passenger through a centralised database. Information on passengers’ immigration and security status would also be immediately available which Douglas said would mean “there will be some people who won’t be getting on the plane.”
Initial trials are expected to take place at one airport for a limited number of passengers. Douglas praised systems he had seen at work, such as that in Dubai, the world’s busiest international airport, and in Australia.
If Dubai Airport claims are correct, immigration procedure times could be reduced to “as little as five seconds.” Even there however, there are barriers for some, with families with children under 15, as well as passengers under 1.2m tall having no access to the tech.
Who is affected?
The UK’s current 270 eGates around 15 air and rail hubs are open to passengers aged 10 or above who are British as well as citizens of the EU (and wider Schengen area), the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea.
The new smart gates will require travellers to be registered on a database though this process is already happening under the auspices of the UK’s new Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme. At a cost of £10 per passengers, the process involves downloading an app, responding to questions, scanning a passport and supplying a photograph. Without an approved ETA, passengers may not board a flight to the UK.
Qatari arrivals are already subject to the scheme and arrivals from Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia are due to be brought online in February 2024. Eventually all visitors to the UK who are not required to have short stay visas, including European nationals, will need biometric details registered to the scheme.
However, with estimated upgrade and roll-out costs into the tens of millions of pounds, the full scheme could still be some way off.
