Loading ...Just when you thought the United States government couldn’t get more paranoid, a new proposal surfaces, calling for biometric information to be required from all non US citizens when leaving the country. The information would be collected by the airlines and their employees, and the International Air Transport Association is having none of it.
IATA director general and CEO Giovanni Bisignani says, “Border protection and immigration are government responsibilities. Airline counter staff are not a substitute for trained border patrol officers. And outsourcing exit formalities to airlines is not a responsible approach. Airlines are committed to working with governments to help facilitate efficient immigration and border protection. We need solutions that are efficient, effective and convenient. Today’s proposal does not meet any of these criteria.”
Bisignani went on to say, “The solution lies within the Department of Homeland Security itself. The Transportation Security Administration is already working on a security check-point of the future. Why is Customs and Border Protection not working with its sister agency to combine the exit process into an automated solution that is both convenient and effective?”
Perhaps the problem lies in the fact that the Department of Homeland Security already has its hands full with various other ways to alienate and enrage people by instituting lavish, expensive and unnecessary big brother-esque tactics.
www.iata.org