New Zealand immigration begins fingerprint checks

New Zealand, 17th August: New Zealand immigration department has started sharing fingerprint checking information with Australia to help control identity fraud and increase border security.

As part of the biometric information checks programme, the information will be shared with the US, UK, and Canada under the FCC (Five Country Conference).

The fingerprint checks are presently being done only on clients of specific categories seeking clearance of their immigration status, said Arron Baker, identity manager of Immigration New Zealand. These include refugee applicants having no passport or identity papers.

The biometric information checks by New Zealand immigration department are being introduced following increased number of migrants seeking entry in New Zealand last year through fake identities. However, there was no way of finding exactly how many times the immigration department of New Zealand had been defrauded by such people in the past.

Illegal migrants as well as organized crime groups use fake passports or identity documents in order to sneak through immigration checks without getting caught, Baker said. Nearly 4,700 fingerprints of illegal migrants trying to enter New Zealand in the past are on the database of Immigration New Zealand, Baker added.

Immigration New Zealand said every single case of migrant entering the country using fake identity costs the department a whopping $28,550.

So, biometrics comes in as an effective, quick and secret protection against the potential threats from illegal migrants to New Zealand, Mr. Baker asserted. Till now, immigration department had to carry out manual checks to know the identity of migrants coming to New Zealand.

Both Australia and New Zealand will share biometrics information of up to 3000 people annually as part of the agreement between the nations. 

Immigration New Zealand had signed a MOU(Memorandum of Understanding) with DIAC(Australian immigration department) on 30th June 2010.

The initiative between Australia and New Zealand is the first step paving way for such agreements with Canada, UK and the US in the near future to help automated checking of fingerprints of migrants.

 The biometric checks software can help in fingerprint checks of around 30,000 migrants with each nation. It compares and confirms some of the unique physical features of migrants including eye scans, fingerprints and photographs with an image obtained previously.