Immigration minister Liam Byrne yesterday announced that all visitors to Britain requiring a visa are now having their fingerprints taken in their home country.
Byrne said the new system is up and running three months ahead of schedule.
He added that the plan is also to increase the number of foreign prisoners being deported from the record 4,200 removed from the UK after serving their sentences in 2007.
The Home Office said in a statement: ‘Anyone applying for a visa from 133 countries covering three quarters of the world’s population now have their fingerprints checked against UK databases.’
Under the new rules, non-EU citizens applying for a visa must submit to a digital finger scan and a full-face digital photograph.
Asked whether Labour will be introducing legislation for compulsory ID cards for UK nationals this year, Byrne said: ‘I don’t think we will do that this year because a voluntary scheme will take several years to run in.’
He said: ‘What we will see this year is the introduction of compulsory ID cards for foreign nationals who want to come and stay in Britain.
‘By Christmas, we will be issuing those ID cards to foreign nationals.’
Also among measures listed by the Home Office yesterday are:
• Within 60 days to introduce on the spot fines for employers who don’t make ‘right-to-work’ checks;
• Within 80 days to begin the introduction of a new points system for ‘managing migration’;
• By Christmas to begin counting foreign nationals in and out of the country and to introduce compulsory checks on flights to and from destinations deemed ‘high risk’ by the government, to see if any passengers’ names appear on ‘watch lists’.
