Border Control System Research Articles

Migration, abjection and visibility: the photographic projects of Sam Ivin, Melanie Friend and Yetunde Adebiyi

ABSTRACT This paper examines the work of three photographers addressing the experiences of migrants awaiting decisions upon, or denied residency applications by the UK government. While Sam Ivin’s Lingering Ghosts portraits convey the emotional and embodied impacts upon migrants awaiting notification of asylum requests, Melanie Friend’s images of Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs) investigate the spaces of exclusion and detention within the UK border control system. The paper concludes by examining Yetunde Adebiyi’s images of protests outside Yarl’s Wood IRC, Bedford and alternative communities for “non-legal” migrants in Liverpool. These images are put in the context of a process of “social abjection” , whereby migrants have been increasingly marginalised through negative media and government policy, ultimately diminishing or denying citizenship to certain groups within society. This raises issues of mobility justice , in that individuals’ experience of mobility is in sharp contrast to that of UK citizens and impacted by multi-scalar entanglements of other (im)mobilities. Individuals’ bodily and spatial experience of, and agency over (im)mobility is related to their visibility, and agency over being visible. By exposing the relative experiences of mobility and visibility the photographs provide a potential site of advocacy for mobility justice but can also draw attention to the unequal experiences of citizenship of subject, photographer and viewer. By suggesting that photographs constitute and engender a social relationship between these parties, the paper proposes that photographic projects might offer a potential “civil contract” between those with very different experiences of mobility, visibility and citizenship.

ADFF: Adaptive de‐morphing factor framework for restoring accomplice's facial image

AbstractMorphing attacks (MAs) pose a substantial security threat to the Automatic Border Control (ABC) system. While a few morphing attack detection (MAD) methods have been proposed, the face morphing accomplice's facial restoration has not received sufficient attention. Due to the inability to foresee the morphing factor used for a particular morphed image, selecting the appropriate de‐morphing factor becomes a challenging problem in the restoration of the accomplice's facial image. If the morphing factor cannot be chosen reasonably, achieving the desired restoration effect is difficult. Therefore, this paper presents an adaptive de‐morphing factor framework (ADFF) architecture for restoring the accomplice's facial image. By exploiting the morphed images stored in the electronic passport system and the real‐time captured criminal's images, ADFF can effectively restore the accomplice's facial image. Experimental results and analysis show that ADFF can significantly reduce the security threats of MAs on ABC.

Design, Simulation and Performance Evaluation of a Risk-Based Border Management System

Border control systems at Europe’s Schengen (and worldwide) borders are necessary to mitigate cross-border threats, but are perceived as free-traveling bottlenecks. Today’s applicable European regulations demand rule-based control schemes and do not allow risk-based elements. A policy shift towards risk-based border control has been considered in several studies and research (including HEU projects). However, there is a lack of scientific evidence on how they compare with existing rule-based schemes. This paper aims to fill that gap. The simulation allows design of a realistic border control system. The passenger flow is modeled via travelers with good and bad intents. The border control system includes decision-making elements to classify travelers into risk groups. System elements including operators and their interaction were modeled in terms of statistical distributions based on the subject matter experts’ input. The performance is estimated across security effectiveness, resource usage, passenger flow, and traveler experience. Assessment of a set of simulations reveals better scalability of risk-based systems in terms of resource usage and passenger flow. The potential factors to improve the detection rate of the border control process are also studied. Despite having several benefits, the model demonstrates that social acceptance of the risk-based system is the limiting factor for increased scalability.

Testing and evaluation of the Automated Border Control System

AbstractAim: The aim of the study is to present the circumstances and results of the operational test and evaluation of the Automated Border Control System to be implemented in 2021 on the Hungarian-Ukrainian (Schengen external) border. The focus is on the operational efficiency of the system.Methodology: Through document and content analysis, we examined the theoretical and legal background of the system, its regulatory environment, and in order to achieve the results, we carried out a qualification measurement based on tool- and method-specific criteria.Findings: Measurements and evaluations have shown that, in terms of the ratio between the human resources used in border checks and the time taken to carry out the checks, the checks carried out by the automated border control system have proved to be more efficient.Value: The testing and evaluation of the kiosks and automated (fixed) gates that make up the components of the Automated Border Control System at Schengen external land border crossing points has not been carried out before in Hungary, and therefore this study and the study based on it are unique i n the border policing area.

UK plans facial ID-based border control system

UK plans facial ID-based border control system

Introduction

Introduction

Research on the Management of Border Guards in the New Era — Taking Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in China as An Example

This paper takes the border guards in Xinjiang border areas as the research object, firstly expounds the related concepts, background, current situation of border guards in the new era, and analyzes the importance of border guards in the three-dimensional border prevention and control system. Secondly, it puts forward the problems existing in the management of the border guard team, and analyzes the reasons. Finally, the paper draws on the relevant advanced experience at home and abroad, formulates countermeasures to improve the management of the team of border guards, and puts forward some suggestions and development direction on how to promote the management of the team of border guards in the border areas of our country.

Air Passengers’ Continued Use Intention of the Airport E-Gate System: A Perspective with Perceived Benefits

With the rapid development of air transportation in recent years, the number of national entry and exit passengers has hit record highs. Facing the increasingly busy airport, an automated border control system (E-gate) has been developed to provide faster and more convenient services. This study adopts the perspective of perceived benefits to explore the willingness of passengers to continuously use the E-Gate. In this study, a total of 539 valid questionnaires are collected at the Taoyuan International Airport in Taiwan. The SPSS 24 and AMOS 22 software are used for statistical analysis, and the hypotheses are verified by Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results show that perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and convenience have positive and significant effects on air passengers’ continued use intention of E-gate, with convenience having the greatest impact, followed by perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. The findings of this research can not only assist government agencies and airport operators in the development of better user-accepted immigration clearance systems, but can also provide insight into how to promote the new technology to potential users.

BORDER SURVEILLANCE AND CONTROL SYSTEM, PERSPECTIVES FOR ITS ESTABLISHMENT AND PRACTICAL APPLICATION

Effective management of the European Union's external borders is a key priority and a condition for the proper implementation and maintenance of the Schengen area of free movement, which is one of the most important achievements of European integration. One of the cornerstones of effective management of the European Union's external borders is the timely, accurate and complete exchange of information between all the authorities responsible for controlling the European Union's external borders. The establishment of a European Border Surveillance System (EUROSUR) is an effective tool for such an exchange of information. Within the framework of the EUROSUR project implementation, Latvia has started work on the establishment of the Border Surveillance and Control System, which in the near future will become a basic tool in the development of the Latvian situation image with its further integration into the European situation image. The aim of the study is to study the EUROSUR implementation guidelines at the European Union level, to study the development and implementation of the Border Surveillance and Control System in the State Border Guard, to analyze its functionality and practical application possibilities, to study the existing problems in the Border Surveillance and Control System, and to evaluate.

Keeping the Nazi Menace Out: George Lincoln Rockwell and the Border Control System in Australia and Britain in the Early 1960s

In the early 1960s, the American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell was invited by neo-Nazi groups in Australia and Britain to come to their respective countries. On both occasions, the minister for immigration in Australia and the home secretary in Britain sought to deny Rockwell entry to the country on the grounds that he was not conducive to the public good and threatened disorder. This was done using the border control and visa system that existed in both countries, which allowed the government to exclude from entry certain individuals that were proponents of extreme or “dangerous” political ideologies. In the post-war period, explicit neo-Nazism was seen as a dangerous ideology and was grounds for exclusion of foreigners, even though domestic political parties espousing the same ideology were allowed to exist. Rockwell never came to Australia, but illicitly entered Britain via Ireland in 1962 before being deported, which highlighted potential problems for the British controlling passage across the Irish Sea. Rockwell’s exclusion and deportation also became a touchpoint for future debates in British politics about the denial of entry and deportation of political figures. This article reveals that the Australian and British governments, while allowing far-right organisations to lawfully exist in their countries, also sought to ban the entry of foreign actors who espoused similar politics. This was due to concerns about potential public disorder and violence, but also allowed both governments to portray white supremacism and racial violence as foreign to their own countries.

The politics of deceptive borders: ‘biomarkers of deceit’ and the case of iBorderCtrl

ABSTRACT This paper critically examines a recently developed proposal for a border control system called iBorderCtrl, designed to detect deception based on facial recognition technology and the measurement of micro-expressions, termed ‘biomarkers of deceit’. Funded under the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme, the system is analysed in relation to the wider political economy of ‘emotional AI’ and the history of deception detection technologies. We then move on to interrogate the design of iBorderCtrl using publicly available documents and assess the assumptions and scientific validation underpinning the project design. Finally, drawing on a Bayesian analysis we outline statistical fallacies in the foundational premise of mass screening and argue that it is very unlikely that the model that iBorderCtrl provides for deception detection would work in practice. By interrogating actual systems in this way, we argue that we can begin to question the very premise of the development of data-driven systems, and emotional AI and deception detection in particular, pushing back on the assumption that these systems are fulfilling the tasks they claim to be attending to and instead ask what function such projects carry out in the creation of subjects and management of populations. This function is not merely technical but, rather, we argue, distinctly political and forms part of a mode of governance increasingly shaping life opportunities and fundamental rights.

The Mobile Pass Project: A User Interaction Evaluation

The Mobile Pass project focused its efforts on developing a technologically advanced mobile equipment for land border crossing points. During the project execution, a mobile device supporting biometric recognition (face and fingerprint) and passport checking was designed and developed. To test this new equipment under an operational environment, a usability evaluation was carried out in the Sculeni border control (border of Romania with Moldavia), being the operators Romanian Policemen and the data subjects' real volunteer travelers. The equipment was used for 2 days under different conditions in real scenarios, and the usability evaluation carried out follows the ISO 9241-11:1998 standard. A total of 93 participants completed the new border checking and fulfilled a satisfaction survey at the end of the experiment. This paper describes the evaluation and reports some preliminary results on the user-Automatic Border Control system interaction and the final conclusions obtained at the end of the project, resulting in a valuable guide for designing user interaction in security areas.

Demographic Potential of the Far East

To overcome and reverse constant population outflow from the Far East, the author offers ways of addressing migration problems, such as establishing better conditions for reproduction, creating high-paying jobs, and improving border control system to prevent illegal labor migration.

Bounding Mass Migration across the Atlantic: European Shipping Companies between US Border Building and Evasion (1860s–1920s)

Bounding Mass Migration across the Atlantic: European Shipping Companies between US Border Building and Evasion (1860s–1920s) This article questions the assumption that the rhetoric, laws and border controls to restrict immigration into the United States originated on the Pacific border to exclude Asians and were later transferred to the Atlantic border to limit European migration. To demonstrate that two separate immigration regimes had developed, I use the much-neglected perspective of passenger shipping companies as key actors in the development of border enforcement. As still relevant today, the authorities used transport companies as an integrated part of their border control system, yet at the same time this put them in a privileged position to help their clients pass or even evade controls. The article starts with contextualising the commercial interests behind maritime migrant transport and migration policies. It then analyses the implementation of border controls at the maritime front doors, and subsequently discusses how these had been evaded. Finally, this paper discusses how border controls had first spread from the US ports of entry to the northern and southern land borders and European hubs of departure, before finally consolidating into a frontier at the Mexican-American border, which divided the core from the periphery. I question the conception of a national border policy by clearly differentiating the Pacific and Atlantic border regimes, within which there were important local differences.

Language as a new instrument of border control: the regulation of marriage migration from Morocco to Germany

In 2007, the German government introduced the requirement of a language certificate for citizens of ‘third countries’ who want to join their spouses in the Federal Republic. Thereby, Germany followed the example of the Netherlands, Austria, the UK and France. German policy-makers have justified this language certificate as a measure to facilitate integration before entering the country. Drawing on the Moroccan case, this paper challenges this dominant integration argument and shows the actual consequences of this new instrument of border control. This paper argues that the language certificate leads above all to the hierarchisation of marriage migrants and even to the exclusion of certain candidates, depending on their educational background and financial means. The history of marriage migration from Morocco to Germany shows that family migration, especially of spouses, has a long tradition and has always been the special target of restrictions and control. However, the required language certificate leads to a new level of control. While marriage migration is traditionally based on a private matter, namely the decision to marry someone and to share life together, the utilitarian logic of a neoliberal migration management has found its way into the control of this form of migration. This is also visible in the externalisation of the border regime in the sense of an out-sourcing of migration management, whereby institutions such as language schools have become an integrated part of Germany's border control system.

Using technology to draw borders: fundamental rights for the Smart Borders initiative

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the primary fundamental rights concerns related to biometrics and their use in automated border controls (ABCs), as well as how these issues converge in the European Commission’s Smart Borders proposal. Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on extensive background research and qualitative in-depth interviews conducted in 2013 for the European Union (EU) FP-7 project “FastPass – A harmonized, modular reference system for all European automatic border crossing points”. Findings – The Smart Borders proposal not only compounds the individual concerns related to the use of biometrics in border controls and automatisation thereof, but also has serious issues of its own, premier among which is the imposition of a two-tier border control system. Social implications – The paper is a catalyst for open debate on the fundamental questions of how we got to this point and where do we want to go. It questions the process by which the increased use of IT in border controls has become the norm and policy trend in Europe, and discusses where the limits could be drawn from a fundamental rights perspective. In particular, it warns against the institutionalisation of a two-tier border control system among third-country nationals. Originality/value – Little attention is given to the fundamental rights concerns raised for EU and non-EU citizens as related to biometrics and their use in ABCs, and how these issues are reproduced in the Smart Borders proposal. The paper fills this gap by taking a bottom-up approach: examining the implications of individual elements of the proposal to see their impact on the broader policy.

Re-Framing Mobility and Identity Controls: The Next Generation of the EU Migration Management Toolkit

During the last 20 years, “Schengen Europe” has equipped itself with a matrix of migration control tools comprising a set of exclusionary discourses, laws, institutions, technologies and practices. The European Commission has recently proposed a legislative package on “EU Smart Borders” composed of an Entry-Exit System (EES) and the Registered Travellers Programme (RTP). This article examines the ways in which the EU Smart Borders reframe the traditional understandings and configurations of the EU border control system and its migration management toolkit of technologies. It is argued that smart borders take us a step further in the re-framing of mobility and identity controls in the EU Schengen apparatus. EU discourses backing up these measures have not been so much centered on the insecuritization of irregular immigration. They have instead questioned the effectiveness of the existing EU border regime, and used a “de-securitization” and facilitation of the mobility discourse hiding “discrimination by default.” Smart borders aim at identifying the future potential “irregular overstayer” and generalizing the management of mobility and identity of all non-EU travelers by implementing a person-driven approach. This approach transforms the essence of border controls in Europe and reframes the EU travel documents policy by moving away from a nationality-based approach of border controls towards another based on risk and profiling.

Ethnic Hierarchies and the Shifting EU Schengen Border in the Post-Cold War Era

Borders in Central and Eastern Europe witnessed stark changes in recent decades. Frontiers went from high security zones during the Cold War to far more open borders as socialism retreated. Yet, the subsequent eastward shift of the European Union's Schengen border control system returned some borders to high security status, with only a few later shedding such status as the system moved further eastwards. Beyond discerning how the Schengen border undercuts the EU's effort to promote non-discrimination and other liberal values, this article also shows how Schengen holds the power to further entrench perceptions of ethnic hierarchy.

Examining the Body through Technology: Age disputes and the UK border control system

In an effort to ascertain whether certain migrants and refugees have been telling the ‘truth’ about their age, the UK border control system has, in the past, relied on the use of skeletal x- ray to estimate the applicant’s age, and in recent years has sought to use dental x-ray for the same purpose. However using x-ray for age assessment purposes has been criticised as inaccurate in providing a reasonable estimate of age and as an unnecessary medical risk, which infringes the human rights of the applicant. This is particularly pertinent in the case of children who are victims of trafficking and unaccompanied young people who may be vulnerable to exploitation, because if declared as children, they can access a higher level of care and protection under childcare law. The article argues that the deferment to the use of x-ray to reveal the ‘truth’ in age disputes is evidence that the border control system is more concerned with keeping ‘undesirable’ people out of the UK than observing the human rights of the vulnerable people who come into contact with the system.

Issues Concerning the U.S. Border Control System: Focusing on the South West Border Control

Issues Concerning the U.S. Border Control System: Focusing on the South West Border Control