Originally Posted by
ChrisHurrey
I am a former UK Immigration Assistant Director now working as a consultant for 'FastPass', an EU-funded project to improve the ease of use and functionality of automated border control gates at EU ports of entry. I was closely involved with the design of the UK's IRIS system, as well as the current UK e-Gates. Having admitted my crimes, I'd now like to ask for Business Traveller readers' feedback on self-service passport control in general - experiences, gripes, suggestions etc. The FastPass project is very keen to get the views of users, especially frequent fliers, to assist in the design of future systems.
I hope your efforts come to fruition, but I wouldn't be surprised if you end up in an uphill battle against (or in a position of being stalled by) the paranoid forces amongst governmental actors. Some -- including perhaps some of those who may have been your former colleagues -- are being told that more passport page checking (of UK or other EU+ country passports) at the border is needed to be done.
I received information from separate, unrelated channels that confirm there is a push within (and directed at) the EU+ Schengen states that is all about slowing passengers down at the border and doing more manual checks. This isn't to say that conflicting and competing governmental ways don't have a way of being pursued even when one governmentally-backed effort is in some way working at cross-purposes to another governmentally-backed effort.