There is a trend towards layered pre-arrival controls, with an increasing number of countries implementing pre-inspection measures such as visas or electronic travel authority (ETA), advance passenger information (API) and passenger name records (PNR). Such measures are put in place to collect information and screen passengers prior to their arrival at a national border. This pretravel type of strategy has the potential to enhance security by providing border officials with time and information. Better officials are then more able make appropriate decisions and to detect passengers who present security risks at an early stage, while allowing for smoother processing of low-risk passengers who are not likely to breach the conditions of entry and stay, use fraudulent documents or make deceitful claims.
- Seghetti, L., Border Security: Immigration Inspections at Ports of Entry, 2015.
- Congressional Research Service (CRS), Border Security: Inspections Practices, Policies, and Issues, 2004.
States can seek to exercise extraterritorial migration influence and control within third States through diplomatic and other outposted officials. However, the governing principle is that a State cannot take measures on the territory of another State by way of enforcement of national laws without the consent of the other. As such, current practice is that States accredit attachés at embassies and consulates with specialist roles such as labour attachés and immigration officers. These officials deal with labour migration, general immigration matters and the interests and rights of nationals in third countries, as well as border control activities. As well, many countries now deploy liaison officers stationed abroad to work with foreign governments and airline personnel to identify persons travelling with fraudulent documents and to combat the smuggling of migrants and trafficking in persons.
Under arrangements established through bilateral agreements, immigration inspection officers are stationed at airports. These officers carry out full clearance for entry to the country of destinations, inspecting passengers departing for the officers’ country, and at times for other collaborating countries. The officers are also working with, training, and advising airline staff on the prevention of travel of persons with fraudulent supporting documents or identification. The various schemes developed by countries differ slightly in terms of structure as well as the job titles and responsibilities of officers stationed abroad. However, the main idea is the same: to screen passengers as early as possible, and to facilitate the travel of passengers who are most likely to comply with the conditions of their entry and stay, while preventing the movement of those who pose a threat to national security.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is a preclearance strategy whereby personnel are stationed at designated foreign airports to conduct a full immigration inspection of travellers prior to boarding flights bound for the United States. With this strategy, passengers are allowed to land at domestic terminals in the US without further inspections by Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Today there are more than 600 officers stationed at 16 preclearance locations in 6 countries, including Ireland, Aruba, the Bahamas, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Canada. In 2019, CBP personnel stationed abroad precleared 16 per cent (22 million) of air travellers to the United States.
CBP as a preclearance strategy brings innovative technologies in pre-arrival facilitation, including biometric facial recognition, which are essential to expediting passenger processing, given the large passenger volume to the United States. CBP also establishes new airline routes to US destinations and less expensive domestic gates, while bolstering safe, secure and efficient travel in coordination with other government authorities.
Immigration liaison officers (ILOs) are liaison officers posted close to the centres of criminal activity, or in origin countries with large numbers of migrants in irregular situations. Their role is to work with local law enforcement agencies and other international agencies such as the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) to address irregular migration and to counter organized criminal networks (see Intelligence gathering and the role of technology).
In 2004, the European Union established an immigration liaison officer (ILO) network in order to coordinate the activities of ILOs posted by Member States. Under this structure, ILOs posted to the same country form a local network for the purposes of sharing information and coordinating activities, policies and training courses. In addition, by further agreement, an ILO from one Member State may be designated to attend to the interest of other Member States.
Airline liaison officers (ALOs) are immigration inspection officers posted abroad to work with and train airline staff to prevent the travel of persons with fraudulent documents or identity documents. Although they have no legal powers to prevent passengers from embarking, their authority is implied since, in essence, the ALO lets the carrier know that the individual would not be admitted at a destination point of entry irrespective of the visa they might hold. In this context, close partnerships with airline companies in facilitating pre-arrival is essential in terms of checking identity, confirming whether the traveller has the necessary entry visa, sharing passenger information with the State, and so on.
While travel facilitation has traditionally been a responsibility of the public sector, private entities are now becoming increasingly involved, including airline companies. There are punitive financial measures for airlines should they transport undocumented migrants. For this reason, partnerships with the private sector must be carefully assessed and formed through transparent and responsible cooperation models, while ensuring access to the latest technologies and good practices. This way, airlines companies can play a crucial partnering role to implement systems and processes as well as to deliver effective support to governments.
Advance passenger information (API) is a system that involves agreement between countries, and between airlines and governments. API permits lists of passengers to be electronically sent by the airlines ahead of flights to the immigration authorities of the country of destination for prechecking before arrival. Its main purpose is to facilitate travel for passengers who are most likely to comply with the conditions of their entry by allowing for early registration and processing of travellers, thus reducing delays at the border. API is limited to a relatively small number of core data elements.
Canada’s advance passenger information (API) programme involves the transfer of the following information:
• full name
• date of birth
• gender
• citizenship or nationality
• type of travel document, the country of issue and the number
• reservation record locator (if any)
• flight manifest data
This information is contained in the machine-readable zone (MRZ) of passports, and can therefore be collected by airlines at airport check-in. Once the API has been collected, it is transmitted to the country of destination, where it is analysed and checked against databases and alert lists such as INTERPOL I-24/7, as well as any visas held in the name given in the API. The information then becomes available to immigration and customs officials at the airport of arrival. Ultimately, this leads to enhanced security, since officials have more time to identify those travellers who may pose a threat and can consequently focus their attention on these passengers upon arrival. This also means faster processing of the majority of passengers who do not need to be singled out for closer inspection and whose data have already been captured through the API system. Upon arrival, it may suffice for them to verify their identity.
In most cases, API is transmitted only after the flight has taken off. This means that while immigration officials have time to prepare for the arrival of persons who have been identified as security threats, they cannot stop them from embarking on the flight. However, if API is transmitted before the flight takes off, the system can be designed to verify all passenger information prior to departure. The airline can then be informed and requested to prevent the passenger from boarding the flight. Such an interactive system is sometimes called advance passenger processing (APP) or an authority to carry (ATC) scheme.
IOM/Samantha Donkin, 2013.
Under this system, the carrier has to obtain clearance from the relevant State prior to providing transport services to passengers on aircraft, ships or trains that are arriving at (or expected to arrive at) or leaving (or expected to leave) the country. By verifying passenger information prior to departure, this system reduces the likelihood that individuals will have to be returned home immediately, on being turned away by officials at their destination. As well as increasing security, this also reduces airline and border control costs (airlines can be fined thousands of dollars for landing inappropriately documented passengers) as well as unnecessary complications for the traveller in question. Some countries match API against ETA visa information and alert lists. Should there be a problem with the visa, or should the passenger be of concern to the State for security- or health-related reasons, the carrier will receive prior advice at check-in not to board the passenger.
On the other hand, a passenger name record (PNR) is created when a travel booking is made for a passenger and is held in the travel agent’s or airline’s reservation system. Along with the names and ticket details of the passenger, PNR typically includes information on the date and method of ticket payment, dates of travel, contact details such as address, telephone number or email, seating information, travel itinerary, ticket information, travel agent, seat number, baggage information and other special requirements. Such information can either be provided by airlines electronically (“push” method), or appropriate authorities can access parts of reservation systems where the PNR information is stored (“pull” method).
- Establish national legislation and policy guidelines regarding passenger data collection, as well as the provision to use, transfer and retain data in line with international standards related to data privacy and protection.
- Assess existing technical and intelligence capacities and gaps in your country, including information and communications technology (ICT) architecture for advance passenger information (API) or passenger name record (PNR) systems, data processing and analysis tools and software.
- Integrate API/PNR systems into domestic intelligence and processing systems in a way that aligns with aviation industry standards.
- Provide training and capacity-building on the use of API/PNR systems with relevant government departments and ministries as well as with airlines and industry experts.
- International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and International Air Transport Authority (IATA), Passenger Name Record (PNR) Data, 2016. This document includes recommendations and international standards governing the transfer of PNR.
- World Customs Organization (WCO) International Air Transport Authority (IATA) and International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Guidelines on Advance Passenger Information (API), 2014.
- This set of guidelines emphasizes the expected benefits of API, both in terms of increased security and faster flight clearance time, thus facilitating travel. It also recommends that information transmitted should be limited as far as possible to the data included in machine readable travel documents (MRTD) in order to ensure interoperability.
- United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), Countering Terrorist Travel Programme. This "all-of-UN" flagship global initiative of UNOCT, which IOM is a partner to, assists beneficiary Member States in building their capabilities to detect and counter terrorists and serious criminals by using API and PNR data to improve the use of international databases with known and suspected terrorists and criminals, and enhance international information exchange, in accordance with Security Council resolutions 2178, 2396, and 2482 (2019), international standards and recommended practices and human rights principles. The Programme comprehensively assists beneficiary Member States in legislative, operational, transport industry engagement, and technical areas.
The collection of personal data, including passenger name records (PNR) and advance passenger information (API), is considered by many States as an important border-security and enforcement tool to facilitate travel while preventing and detecting forms of serious crime. However, there are concerns about the usefulness of the PNR system, particularly in light of already existing provision for API. The latter has encountered fewer objections, as the data transmitted are essentially limited to that contained in the machine-readable zone of passports (information available to border and customs authorities at border control posts). PNR, however, involves additional and more personal information and is consequently more intrusive in terms of privacy.
Despite these concerns, the use of personal information for passport and visa management is increasing. Care must be taken to ensure that privacy concerns are carefully considered, and that data protection safeguards are in place (see Data, research and analysis for policymaking). Special consideration must be further given in relation to biometrics. The collection of biometric data should not be arbitrary and should be undertaken after carefully balancing security gains against privacy concerns. Data protection rules require that whenever biometric data are collected, there must be a clear justification for doing so. In cases where it is deemed justified, biometric data should be handled in a secure, agreed-upon manner and used exclusively for the stated purpose, including in terms of the length of time the data may be retained by authorities.
External service providers (ESPs) around the world that offer visa services have had to make changes in the way they deal with data since April 2016 when the European Union adopted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) amid growing concerns about the safety of personal data from identity theft and other unethical usage. The new regulation requires companies, including those that offer visa services, to provide a reasonable level of protection for personal data, including basic identity (name, address, identity numbers), web data, health and genetic, biometric, racial or ethnic data, information on political opinions, sexual orientation and so on.
The changes that the companies that offer visa services have had to undertake give citizens better control over their personal data processed by an ESP. Apart from the rule that a citizen will have to give “clear and affirmative consent” for their data to be processed, the GDPR also grants them rights to ask for their data to be deleted from the database of a service provider.
Visa service providers that do not comply with GDPR are fined up to €20 million or 4 per cent of an organization’s annual global turnover, whichever is greater. Significant penalties encourage companies to pay careful attention to the rules. Since visa ESPs are affected by the GDPR, these effects also flow on to travel agents and related companies due to the large volume of personal and sensitive data they too process.
GDPR applies to the Member States of the European Union. Other nations have also chosen to apply the rules as GDPR has become a global benchmark in privacy standards, impacting how ESPs conduct their business.
- Immigration biometrics collection services should be subject to extensive information-quality and service-delivery standards to ensure the security, privacy and protection of personal data.
- Technical safeguards should be in place to make sure that migrant and traveller information is collected, stored and transmitted securely using encryption. These measures prevent unauthorized access to such information.
- Personal data should be deleted from collection systems once they have been successfully transmitted to immigration identification systems.
- Personal data should only be shared with trusted partner countries with prior informed consent of the data subject in a manner that respects privacy laws, civil liberties and human rights.
- Pre-arrival procedures, which include pre-screening of arriving persons and pre-reporting by carriers of passengers, should uphold the principle of non-discrimination, and respect the right to privacy and the protection of personal data.
- The measures employed by States to inspect passengers at pre-arrival include such measures as the stationing of immigration officers at airports and embassies abroad and, increasingly, sophisticated systems for electronically transmitting pre-arrival information on passengers to border and immigration authorities.
- Advance passenger information (API) and passenger name record (PNR) are two technical responses to streamline traveller-identification management and to facilitate border management, while upholding border security.
- Data privacy and security are major concerns for various States that have implemented strict measures when it comes to personal data/biometrics collection, processing, retention and destruction.