<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Pax transiting the U.S. w/o required entry documentation are referred to as "TWOVs" (transit without visa) and on some flights, you will notice that these pax are required to hand over their passports to the airline crew prior to boarding their departure flight to the U.S. These passports are bundled together in a large envelope and handed to a ground staff person at the transit airport and not returned to the pax until they are ready to board their outbound flight from the U.S. to their final destination.</font>
Does anyone know what the purpose of this is? My assumption is to make it less likely that the transit passenger will not get on the connecting flight and enter the US illegally. But, if someone was planning on doing this, I don't see how the retention of their passport serves as much deterrent. They could always go to their embassy in the US and request a replacement.
I've heard of cases where the passenger's passport doesn't make it on the connecting flight due to a mistake by the airline. Depending on the situation, I suppose some these people just end up waiting in the immigration hall of the arrival country until their passport shows up.
Also, in the cases where airports don't have sterile transit facilities per se, and end up keeping people in the immigration hall or sterile transit room, then escorting them to the departure gate, who is doing the escorting? If it's airline personnel, it would seem to me that it wouldn't be that hard to just bolt from the escort once you're in the gate area and leave the airport. What are they going to do about it? Now, if the escort is an immigration officer with the authority and capability to physically stop someone from doing this, that would be a different matter.