Taiwanese Ministry of the Interior says biometric system could be in place by December

The Ministry of the Interior of Taiwan has announced that it will begin using a biometric system at border control points, as soon as the end of this year.

“The Executive Yuan has approved the ministry’s plan to use biometric identification technology at border control points and we will start collecting biometric information from visiting foreigners as well as from Taiwanese with no household registration information this year,” Deputy Minister of the Interior Hsiao Chia-chi said. “This will better maintain border security and safety of the public.”

Reported in the Taipei Times, as of yet, the ministry has spent approximately US$6 million to develop the system.

Discussed previously in BiometricUpdate.com, this is the exact amount The National Immigration Agency asked for to set up the system earlier this year.

Under this new system, a foreigner or a Taiwanese citizen without a household registration will be required to provide fingerprints and have facial features recorded. This is the information that will be used to ensure that when the visitor leaves, they are who they say they are.

“Plastic surgery can change the way a person looks, but it cannot change biological features such as the distance between two pupils,” Chia-chi said. “If the system fails to identify the person by comparing facial features, we would then check their fingerprints.”

Biometric border screenings are increasingly a part of today’s travel experience, and new systems are popping up at airports all over the world. Reported previously in BiometricUpdate.com, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security in the United States are teaming up to identify high-risk criminals and travellers using iris recognition technology.

 

Article Topics

border control  |  facial recognition  |  fingerprint  |  identification  |  verification