Good day FT community,
I've just recently stumbled upon this forum while I was looking for something which apparently hasn't been compiled yet: A (as far as possible) comprehensive list of countries/airports which demand travellers to provide fingerprints, iris scans and/or taking a photo and the like. Apart from old threads
like this, I haven't found a similar request yet and hope you'll find it useful and that it's in the right section here
I reckon that'd be very interesting and allows people who still care about their privacy to consider a possible holiday location twice before going there (and even more important, before the transit through a certain country). I've seen I'm
not the only one in this forum being concerned about this, and given the big number of frequent travellers here, let's gather useful info! Details are worth gold of course:
- If a country takes fingerprints at airports, does that apply to people having that country as final destination only or also to transiting travellers?
- Which specific measures are demanded (fingerprints, iris scans, etc.)
- Do the measures apply to air travel only or also to arrival/departure by land/sea?
- Is there an option to opt-out (the normal answer will be "no")?
Note: I personally haven't been to any countries practising this, but what I know from various news, forums, people etc. so far (with some question marks) is:
- The US (Fingerprints: visiting - yes, transit - yes / Iris scan: visiting - no?, transit - no?) /// Opt-out possible: no
- Japan (Fingerprints: visiting - yes, transit - ? / Iris scan: visiting - yes?, transit - ?) /// Opt-out possible: no
- South Korea (Fingerprints: visiting - yes, transit - ? / Iris scan: visiting - ?, transit - ?) /// Opt-out possible: no
China
doesn't take fingerprints, but will take a digital photo of you before departure (funny enough, it doesn't happen on arrival).
Feel free to share any contradicting experiences! In general, there is not much coming up on Google apart from heaps of news sites on the US and the other usual suspects posted above, but I've found
this odd website also listing
- Cambodia
- Panama
- Argentina
- Ghana
- Malaysia
- Saudi Arabia
as taking fingerprints. Could people who've been to these places recently (past three years I'd say) chime in please and confirm this
Any reports on experiences are welcome.
Once we've got some answers, I'll start making up a table so that it's easier to read for everyone. This community has already done a great job in gathering info on
airports with whole body scanners, so I'm hoping we're able to do the same with this matter.
Thanks for reading and happy sharing, here's the the table:
