When passport stamps go to the archives

It is reported that Dubai already offers passport free clearance for some categories of travellers already enrolled by them. They hope to deploy their biometric system more widely by November. So the push towards automated clearance is gaining traction and passport stamps will gradually be phased out and eventually become emotional reminders of previous travel history that will now be in the past. For Dubai, it is reported to have 122 smart gates which allow passengers to complete immigration clearance within five to nine seconds.

Seamless border travel initiatives that include using digital credentials will allow passengers to pass through immigration without their passports. A single token of authentication will be put in place at various automated touchpoints and this will apply to such places as bag drop, immigration and boarding. Technology adoption is always planned and incorporated into an airport’s IT strategic planning process to get the best result. IT managers must look beyond technology for the sake of using the same but must have at the back of their minds the fact that improved passenger facilitation impacts the bottom line and is good for business.

The technology is in its early adoption and it does have inherent cyber security risks. In Changi airport in Singapore both manual and automated checkpoints are reported to be running in parallel. This method of adoption is costly and the traditional passenger processing method is hoped to be fully phased out soon. This  airport, which is already putting to use both biometric  technology and facial recognition software, is focused on its goal of providing passengers with more seamless, secure, and efficient clearance at immigration for every traveller.

So the end result of this innovation is to bring to an end the era of lining up to have one’s passport stamped and having multiple checks on passport stamps. Passengers will not have to repeatedly bring out their travel documents at various touchpoints. Processing of passengers will be seamless and more convenient by doing so. There will be a retention of traveller data for a short time period necessary to carry out all relevant immigration processes while the passenger is travelling. At the completion of immigration processes, the data is expected to be de-personalised and deleted properly.

This is not new in Nigeria and most of Africa at the banks. Previously a bank customer queued at the bank, took numbers and could go off to some other assignment before returning to the bank to rejoin the queue and collect money. Now, many people, young and old, are likely to go look for another ATM machine round the corner when there is a queue at one ATM machine. Passbooks with stamps and signatures on them are now in the archives. There had been a similar pattern of change with driving licences that only a much older generation would remember.

As with all systems it is not without its risks. However, it is expected that all data will be encrypted with controls put in place so that travellers are protected against inappropriate and unauthorised actions that compromise confidentiality, integrity and accuracy of passenger data. The effort will also be further protected by regular checks and audits on the system to ensure that systems are working as intended.

It is still work in progress and much needs to be done before a global adoption of this innovative travel experience. There is still a lot to be done for Africa, Asian and Latin American countries to  catch up. However the leapfrogging experience with mobile telephony in a place like Nigeria and the continuous improvements in technology mean that today’s laggards can join the adoption of this new technology faster than may have been envisaged.