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Visitors to U.S. to be fingerprinted

Paul Harris, Jamie Doward and Paul Gallagher

New York/London: Millions of visitors to the United States are to have their fingerprints stored on the FBI database alongside those of criminals in a move that has outraged civil rights groups.

Under new plans to combat terrorism, the U.S. Government will demand that visitors have all 10 fingers scanned when they enter the country. The information will be shared with intelligence agencies, including the FBI, with no restrictions on their international use.

U.S. airport scanners currently take only two fingerprints from travellers. The move to scan 10 allows the information to be compatible with the FBI database.

"We are going to start testing at several airports in the U.S." a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman confirmed. "It will begin some time this summer." Sources said 10 airports would initially be involved in the scheme, including New York, Washington, and Miami. Countries subject to the new scheme include E.U. nations, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

On Saturday night, the British civil rights group Liberty expressed astonishment at the plan, which will affect the four million Britons who travel to the U.S. each year.

"This must be the Keystone cops school of border control," said Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty. "Accumulating the fingerprints of millions of innocent passengers will not deter would-be suicide bombers."

Security experts warned the scale of the scheme might jeopardise its success. "This maniacal proposal will turn thousands of law-abiding British travellers into terrorist suspects," said Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, the pressure group that campaigns against intrusive surveillance.

Europeans already have their credit card details and email accounts inspected by American authorities following a deal between the European Union and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

—© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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