Travelers To Canada Need To Undergo Biometrics Screening

06 Jun 2015

Tourists, foreign students, refugees, migrant workers and immigrants form 151 visa required countries should provide fingerprints and digital photos to Canadian authorities for pre-screening.

The P.M. Stephen Harper on Thursday, has announced that, an injection of $312.6 million would result in expansion of the existing program for all foreign nationals who will be entering Canada on Visa by the year 2018.

All travelers belonging to 151 nations, whether they are tourists, migrant workers, tourist immigrants or refugees, they are required to submit both digital photos and also fingerprints to the Canadian authorities for the purpose of their application and it should be matched upon their arrival at ports of entry.

Sukanya Pillay ,Canadian Civil Liberties Association added that biometrics tools are very useful in authenticating the identity at the border, but any misuse of collected biometrics should be controlled and it should be subject to stringent privacy protocols for both usage and access.

This expanded scheme was included  as one of the new investments in enhancing the border security announced by the govt that included $137 million for the Canadian Security intelligence Service to combat terror threats and$10 million for Canada Revenue Agency to crack down on terror financing.

We should necessarily be dazzled much with the new technologies and forget the basic privacy principles.

We would make sure people who they, say they are. And also we will make sure, the person who arrives in Canada is the same person who applied for the visa overseas. The reason is, you can fake your name, you can also fake the documents, but you cannot fake your finger prints said, the Harper in Torronto.

The Canadian officials plan to establish 180 biometrics collection service points in 94 countries, with an additional 135 centres across the United States for stop over visitors.

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