December 18, 2001
Every person in the world would be fingerprinted and registered under a
universal identification scheme to fight illegal immigration and people
smuggling outlined at a United Nations meeting today.
The plan was put forward by Pascal Smet, the head of Belgium's independent
asylum review board, at a roundtable meeting with ministers including
Australian Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock this afternoon.
Mr Smet said the European Union was already considering a Europe-wide
system, using either fingerprints or eye scanning technology, to identify
citizens. But he said the plan could be extended worldwide.
"There are no technical problems. It is only a question of will and
investment," he said.
"If you look to our societies, we are already registered from birth until
death. Our governments know who we are and what we are. But one of the
basic problems is the numbers of people in the world who are not
registered, who do not have a set identity, and when these people move with
real or fake passports, you cannot identify them.
"It's a basic rule of management that if you want to manage something, you
measure it. It's the same with human beings and migration.
"But instead of measuring it, you have to register them."
Mr Smet said the scheme would give people dignity by giving them an
identity if their papers had been lost or destroyed.
And he said it would allow countries to open their borders to genuine
travellers or asylum seekers, because they would be able to prove the
identity of any over-stayers and deport them without argument from their
home country.
Mr Ruddock appeared unconvinced by the merits of the plan.
"In principle we would be supportive of a system which would crack down on
multiple asylum claims, but a universal identification system would be
taking it too far," he said through a spokeswoman.
By Maria Hawthorne
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Copyright © 2001 John Fairfax Holdings Ltd. All rights reserved.
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A.K. Pritchard
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