Biometric and biographical data of more than 76,000 people were found to have been mixed up in the UK government’s immigration database, denying some people the right to work, rent a home or receive state-funded healthcare. It remains unprovable.
A database run by the UK Home Office called the Person-Centric Data Platform (PCDP) stores information on 177 million migrants, including identity documents, visa applications and biometric information. Ta. However, leaked internal documents seen by the Guardian say errors in the database resulted in two or more people’s “identities being merged” or incorrect names, photos or immigration status being listed.
The problem has led to immigration delays, long lines at the border, and the issuance of faulty identification documents. Migrants to the UK who discovered their information had been exchanged with strangers are fighting to prove their identity and access their rights.
The databases affected are part of the Home Office’s £400m initiative to digitize the visa and immigration system.
In February, the Home Office denied there were any “systemic” problems with Atlas, the computer system tool used by immigration caseworkers and border officials to access the PCDP database. However, the leaked documents show that the issue of “identity integration” is a long-standing issue.
The ministry set up a task force to manage the issue and tried to improve the accuracy of its database with tools that alert people to possible merged identities. The tool has so far identified more than 38,000 errors, affecting at least two people, the paper said.
The Home Office claims the error affected 0.02 per cent of individuals in its database.
The EES app may not be completed for another year.
Britain may soon face another immigration-related problem. This time it concerns the Entry and Exit System (EES), a plan that would require residents of EU and non-Schengen countries, including the UK, to register for facial and fingerprint biometrics.
The EES is scheduled to be launched across the Schengen area in the autumn. To avoid long queues at borders, the European Commission is developing a mobile application for pre-registration for border crossings. However, travel, logistics and transportation companies are increasingly concerned about the lack of clarity around the app’s release date.
The European Commission has promised that the app will be ready when the EES goes live, but industry bodies such as British Logistics estimate the launch date in France is likely to be “around summer 2025”. Politico reports that.
Nicolas Mallon, head of trade and empowerment policy at the charity, said: “To be effective, an app must be thoroughly tested with all types of end users and in all languages well before it goes live. “We need to be able to do that,” he says.
The European Commission will supply the software, but each member state will need to build the user interface, which could lead to delays, the companies told Parliament’s European Oversight Committee last week. Freight carriers are particularly concerned that long queues at the port of Dover could cause disruption to the UK’s supply chain.
Logistics companies aren’t the only ones questioning app timelines. Eurostar, which operates trains through the Channel Tunnel, has announced it will install 49 EES kiosks in London to ensure long queues are avoided. The French government has so far allocated only 24 kiosks.
Article topics
Biometrics | Border Control | Entry/Exit System (EES) | Immigration | Mobile Apps | United Kingdom
