Fuse Imports

When the first passengers arrive at Heathrow’s shiny new Terminal 5 on Thursday 27 March 2008 from Hong Kong, those transferring onto a domestic flight will have their photograph taken and fingerprints scanned. In these troubled times security is naturally a priority in a new international airport terminal. But what security systems are in place at T5? And could they be a threat to our civil liberties? BAA, the owners of Heathrow, and British Airways, who will have exclusive use of T5, insist that biometric screening is a government requirement and a necessity in the new terminal because domestic and international passengers are brought together in one departure lounge. All domestic and international passengers transferring onto a domestic flight will be screened. The theory is that an international connecting passenger could otherwise swap documents with a domestic passenger and bypass immigration c SEO Pressor ontrol at their final destination. On presentation of ID or boarding card at biometric security, passengers will have their right hand scanned and face a camera to be photographed. The information recorded will then be checked at the boarding gate. BA states on its website, “Afterwards we delete the records, so don’t worry about your fingerprints being kept on file.” But some people are worried. There are a number of airports around the world where domestic and international passengers already mix, but such a security measure is not in place. There is a concern that this is being casually introduced to desensitise the British public to the significance of routine fingerprinting, and as a precursor to ID cards. Liberty, the civil liberties and human rights group, is opposed to ID cards on the basis that they erode our privacy, cost millions in public money and are questionable in terms of security.