Company News

Veridos Equips Luxembourg Airport with EES-Compliant Registration Systems

The European Union’s new entry-exit system (EES) is scheduled to start in May 2022 and will help to make the entry and exit of third-country nationals simpler, more transparent and more secure. People from third countries will have to register with their fingerprints and a facial image when entering the Schengen area. The biometric data will be stored together with information from passports in the central EES. This will eliminate the need for time-consuming manual stamping of passports and enable an automated passport verification. Thus, the system provides reliable data on border crossings, avoids identity fraud, and detects forged travel documents as well as illegal immigration by revealing overstayed visas.

As part of the EES, Veridos, a leading global provider of identity solutions, will equip Luxembourg Airport with registration technologies, including a self-service eKiosk system that allows travellers to pre-register themselves before proceeding to the screening booths. The eKiosks capture the fingerprints of travellers, take facial images and read passports. They also guide travellers with a menu through questions about their destination, length of stay, and additional members of their parties.

As a unique self-service registration system for travellers, Veridos’ eKiosk is ergonomically designed and adapts to various heights of travellers (including wheelchair users) through the automatic adjustment of the integrated biometric devices, eg. to capture full face images.

With special security technologies, the eKiosks offer protection against spoofing – ie. fraud attempts using photographs, videos, masks or fake fingerprints. A builtin monitoring software allows officials to control multiple kiosks from one supervisory workstation so that they can check the correct use of the eKiosks.

In addition to the eKiosks, Veridos will equip Luxembourg Airport with mobile registration systems and biometric acquisition units.

The mobile solutions are special tablets for capturing fingerprints and facial images, which officials can use to pre-capture passengers’ required biometric data. The biometric capture units will be used in airport screening booths, giving border officials the ability to repeat a registration if necessary, or to register passengers who are asked to manually register in the booths.

Seychelles Signs Deal with IN Groupe for Biometric Passports

The Seychelles has taken a step forward toward introducing electronic biometric passports after signing a contract with the French company IN Groupe. IN Groupe specialises in the production of secure documents such as identity cards and passports and for the past 15 years has delivered passport booklets to the Seychelles.

The contract was recently signed by the Minister for Internal Affairs, Errol Fonseka, and the Vice-President for Internal Sales of IN Groupe, Walter Groppi. Fonseka said that the introduction of an electronic biometric passport in the Seychelles is expected to raise the level of security at borders.

‘Naturally it will help in ensuring that the movement of people through our border is enhanced, is faster and sleeker, but above all the security element of the biometric passport allows us to enhance our border control,’ said Fonseka.

The principal secretary for the Department of Immigration and Civil Status, Alain Volcere, said that the Seychelles is a member of the Public Key Directory put in place by the International Organisation for Civil Aviation (ICAO). ‘When a foreign passport holder goes through our system, we will know within the space of 10 seconds whether the passport has been tampered with, cloned or issued by the right authority.’

Volcere added that ‘a biometric passport system will thus help us to elevate our security levels considering the prevalence of criminality in the world today, so it is important that we know the identities of persons coming in and for access control at the airport. Therefore, it is a significant step in border control management in the Seychelles, and we will see its many fruits in the future.’

The new biometric passport is likely to contain 48 pages instead of the current 32 pages. Furthermore, it will have a lifespan of 10 years, up from the current five. These changes will apply to all three categories of passports – regular, official, and diplomatic – that are issued in the Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean.

With discussions still ongoing on how the transition will be made, the new system is expected to start operating by the end of 2022.

Saint Lucia to Issue ePassports

The government of St Lucia is moving from machine-readable passports (MRPs) to ePassports, which are internationally recognised as a more secure form of travel document. More than 140 nations already issue ePassports that contain a microchip which includes information on the traveller as well as a digital certificate. The certificate can be verified within the international border control community, thus ensuring the passport was issued by a recognised government.

Partnering with St Lucia to produce the ePassport is Canadian Banknote Company (CBN), which has been a partner since 2006 when it first began to supply the government with MRPs and a passport issuing system.

According to CBN’s Michael Walker, the information that the ePassport contains can be verified physically through inspection. Further, with the passport electronically encoded within the microchip, it allows an electronic form of authentication to be verified at international borders.

Lucius Lake of the Immigration Department said that the cost to St Lucians of the ePassport will increase because of the extra security features and the embedded chip. The present cost of a MRP delivered within 14 days of application is $80, or $130 if the application is expedited within five working days.

Walker admits that due to the number of new security features in the ePassport, as well as the encoded data in the microchip, it may take slightly longer to issue the ePassport.

‘There will be a complete revamp of the current structure. A lot of process efficiencies will be gained but also there’s a lot more involved in the process that will be part of the onboarding of this new system. The timeframes in terms of the length of time required to issue the ePassport will be assessed in future,' he said.