Immigration starting the biometric technology project


Booking.com	Published Monday, February 24, 2020 Immigration starting the biometric technology project By the A.M. Costa Rica staff The Directorate General of Migration announced Friday the start of bidding for the Biometric Identification Migration System project to identify travelers. Biometric technology will be used in the identification of people through the registration of physical features such as fingerprints, the geometry of the hand, the retina and the iris of the eyes, and facial patterns, among others. According to the immigration authorities, this technology comes to give a definitive answer to the problem that the country has for the identification of people. "This limitation is used by organized crime," they said. This technology has the goal of helping with the country's security and the fight against organized crime, especially the crimes of trafficking in persons, smuggling of migrants, document fraud and phishing and related crimes, immigration in its statement said. The technology will be installed in all the immigration control posts and international entry and exit points. It will also apply to all people, national and foreign. "This is to know who crosses our borders and intends to remain in our territory for non-lawful purposes or dangerous profiles," said immigration. According to Migration, biometrics identification devices will be used to: - Identification, detention and investigation of victims of trafficking in persons. - Detection of human traffickers and migrant traffickers. - Detection of people wanted for crimes internationally. - People reported missing or abducted. - Detection of fraudulent documents. - And, avoid the falsification of the visa to enter Costa Rica. The devices include an automated system of fingerprint identification and facial recognition, which will capture the 10 fingerprints of both national and foreign people, as well as the capture of facial biometric data. "That way we can identify the person by comparing their face with the database, with the passport and with the immigration data," said authorities in its statement. Also, the system will review the traveler identification, in a national and international security database, and will allow the sharing of information with other police forces, to strengthen the fight against organized crime. "It is a system that will be available to protect national security 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with response times of maximum 10 seconds, highly efficient following institutional requirements," said immigration. The system will access the current biometric system of the Supreme Court of Elections for the issuance of passports, whose database would include only Costa Ricans, validating their identity with two of the fingerprints. According to immigration, the process of installing this technology is in the phase of receiving company offers. It is expected that in April, immigration can select a company that will install the technology in the ports of entry and international departures. Recent cases of foreigners entry rejected by immigration authorities happened in November 2019, when five Salvadoran were deported due to the criminal records in their country of origin and in the U.S. According to the immigration police report, the men surnamed Quintanilla-Salinas, Ramírez-Villatoro, Santamaría, Mira and Alvarado "were linked to highly dangerous groups such as the maras and other gangs, this according to the results obtained from the consultations made to the bases of police data." According to the investigation carried out by the immigration police, Santamaría, has a history of drug possession and drug possession, in addition to aggravated extortion. He was deported twice from the U.S. and linked to the MS-13 gang in Los Angeles, the agency said. MS-13 is the designation for the Mara Salvatrucha criminal gang that has a strong presence in areas populated by immigrants in the U.S. Ramírez-Villatoro was deported from the U.S. in 2001 for crimes related to threats with a knife, and also, on his body. He has tattoos related to the MS-13 gang," said immigration in its statement. Alvarado has a history of illegal possession and possession of firearms and was deported from the U.S. in 2010, said the authorities. The other two men had no record of having been deported from the U.S. However, police confirmed that they have other criminal records. Quintanilla-Salinas had an impediment to entering the country since he had been deported in 2017, and also, he had served three years and four months' imprisonment for the crime of aggravated robbery in Costa Rica, said immigration police. Mira has a history of being in jail for illegal associations, police added. The five Salvadorans were deported to El Salvador where officials of that country will continue with the judicial process. In October 2019, the Border Police officers from Golfito, in the southern zone of the country arrested a man surnamed Polanco, a Dominican citizen, who is named in a warrant from the U.S. Justice Department. According to the police report, Polanco is wanted by a New York court for a case linked to a murder. Also in October 2019, the Professional Migration Police reported that four U.S. citizens were prohibited from entering the country because they have criminal records of sexual abuse against minors. According to the police report, the first case happened when three men, all U.S. citizens, arrived in the country by boat and tried to enter through the maritime immigration control post located in the Puntarenas port. The fourth U.S. citizen also was rejected when he arrived in the country, apparently from Nicaragua, and tried to enter the country at the Peñas Blancas post on the northern border. The officers of the border posts detected that these people, both the three men who came by boat and the one who came by land, have a history of sexual abuse against minors and possession of child pornography. In all four cases, the men had reported that they were coming to the country as tourists. Them names were not reported in the police statement. According to the data provided by immigration authorities, in 2019 from January to October, 48 people had been prohibited from entering to the country due to criminal records of sexual abuse against minors. ------------------------ Is there biometric technology in the international ports of your country? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com