Authorities Urged to Block Profiles of Suspicious Travellers with Technology

Ugo Aliogo

The Regional Group Chief Operating Officer, VFS Global, Jiten Vyes, has urged border control authorities in different countries to employ the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to block the profiles of suspicious travellers using algorithms, which would force them to go through manned border gates and narrowing the chances of illegal entry into the country.

Vyes, who gave the orders in a statement, said with travel restrictions easing globally, border control authorities are likely to spend more time scrutinising travellers’ records, given the added need to review health credentials and vaccination statuses.

He remarked that given risks such as protecting data sets, including the training data, becomes critical, noting that core security principles of encryption, access control and authentication, logging and monitoring become important and should be included right from the design and development stage of the systems.

The statement revealed that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its air transportation report for 2022 revealed that international passengers that passed through Nigerian airports increased from 1.4 million to 2.2 million in 2021, which is an increase of 57.6 per cent within the period.

The statement also noted that with a collective intent to regain pre-pandemic momentum in global mobility, governments remain wary of overcrowding at airports and security threats.

According to Vyes, “Earlier this year when cross-border traffic was tapered. The chief solution officer at UK’s Heathrow Airport told the UK Parliament Transport Select Committee that queuing times at the airport had increased to up to six hours, as border officials were obliged to check passengers’ documents; including the passenger locator form and the proof of negative COVID-19 test; manually. While biometric identity management systems have helped improve this situation to some extent by enabling officials at border gates to verify the identity of passengers at a faster rate, this sector demands frequent innovations.”

He hinted that with governments focusing on contactless travellers’ experience, there have been innovations in biometric authentication at airports.