The well turned out woman in trench coat and silky scarf stomped off the plane from Tokyo and headed for home in the suburbs of Virginia.
”It was too bad,” said Mrs Suzuki, the discomfort of a 12-hour flight compounded by the indignities of the new security measures on arrival. ”I felt like I was being treated like a criminal.” Yesterday was the first day of rigorous security measures that will require most visitors to the US to be fingerprinted and photographed on arrival at airports and border crossings.
For travellers through Dulles airport, the main international hub for Washington, already shaken by holiday horror stories of travel havoc and the notorious repeat cancellation of flight BA223, the measures were just a small tribulation.
In the wake of America’s Code Orange alert, at US airports and public places thought to be targets of al-Qaeda and other terrorists the screening measures were wearily accepted — though not without suspicion or embarrassment. Officials from the department of homeland security, the bureaucratic giant invented after the September 11 attacks to centralise protection, said yesterday that the collection of biometric data posed no threat to legitimate travellers. Visitors from Arab and Muslim countries have been subject to similar measures for more than a year although some of the follow-up procedures were discarded as too unwieldy. Arriving passengers admitted that the procedures, which include digitally scanning both index fingers and a digital photograph, take only seconds and that officials were polite.
But Sagandhi, a student from India returning for the winter term at Duke university in North Carolina, could not shake off a niggling suspicion. Could the information recorded yesterday come back to haunt her? ”It definitely made me feel like I might do something or that it is possible that I could be tracked down,” said the literature student. As a precaution she refused to give her last name. ”I feel like now I could get caught for anything like under-age drinking.”
But Sagandhi said there was no point in protesting. ”I feel like I just have to take it. I can’t feel angry, even if I want to.”
Britons and citizens of 27 other countries who do not need visas — mainly Europeans but also Japanese, Singaporeans and Canadians — will be exempt from the procedure if they are tourists. But at 115 airports, Britons with student, work or business visas are subject to the measures.
US authorities say the digital prints and photographs will be checked against terrorist watch lists and databases of ordinary criminals. Departing visitors will have their fingerprints and photographs checked to ensure that they have not overstayed their visas.
The extra scrutiny was reassuring for Karen Moscrop from Weybridge, Surrey who arrived on a United Airlines flight from Heathrow. ”It really is unobtrusive. It felt odd but it really didn’t bother me.”
That is not how Takahisa Yamaoka felt. An engineer from Japan, he has lived and worked in Ohio for the past three years. ”It is like I am exposing some private thing. I didn’t think it would happen to me, so it’s embarrassing.”
Moscrop says she has grown to overlook such concerns about dignity. During the past four years she has travelled frequently in the US for her work. After September 11 she was jittery about baggage screenings and other safety measures. She welcomed the extra layer of protection yesterday.
But she could not entirely banish the thought that her name, photographs, fingerprints and movements now recorded in a national database could one day be used against her. ”I just hope it doesn’t get abused in some way. The main thing is, will it affect my getting a green card or a visa?” – Guardian Unlimited Â