Screening Of All Air Passengers, Crew, Enhances Border Security
Australia’s border security has been enhanced with all passengers and crew of commercial airlines now being screened overseas before flying here, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs, Amanda Vanstone, said today.
‘Passengers are screened through the Advance Passenger Processing (APP) system, which represents leading-edge border control technology,’ Senator Vanstone said.
‘In the past few weeks the roll-out of the latest version of the system has been completed to cover all 46 international airlines that fly regularly to Australia, meaning all passengers and crew are now screened before boarding or, for passengers starting a journey at domestic airports, at a suitable transit point.
‘This helps travellers by streamlining processing on arrival in Australia and helps airlines by reducing the risk for them of having to return a passenger who does not have authority to enter Australia.
‘For the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) it not only allows verification of travellers’ authority to enter before arriving, it acts as an early-alert of expected arrivals, allowing time for cross checks against other systems, such as the Movement Alert List (MAL.)
‘MAL is a computer database that stores details about people and travel documents of Immigration concern to Australia.
‘Many of the issues identified by APP can be resolved before flights depart for Australia. Many thousands of minor travel document issues were resolved before arrival in Australia.’
An early version of the system was first trialled with QANTAS in 1995, and later versions rolled out to eight airlines including Singapore Airlines, British Airways, Air New Zealand and Cathay Pacific. The systems were significantly enhanced in January last year ahead of the final roll out to all 46 international airlines which fly regularly to Australia over the past few weeks.
Also, since January 2004 all passengers and crew of cruise ships have been screened under the system. In cooperation with the shipping industry, DIMIA is now trialling the system with some cargo vessels.
