Guardian : Terror: EU plan for vetting of air passengers

Terror: EU plan for vetting of air passengers

Alan Travis and Alexi Mostrous | Thursday August 17, 2006 | The Guardian

A system for the "positive profiling" of European airline passengers is to be urgently explored in response to last week's alleged airline terror plot, European interior ministers meeting in London agreed yesterday.

The home secretary, John Reid, insisted that the new system, which would affect all domestic and international flights in and out of Europe, would not involve screening by religion or ethnic background but would be carried out well in advance of flights based on biometric checks - electronic eye or facial scans.

The European Commission vice-president, Franco Frattini, said he wanted to see a system of advanced screening of passenger name records - similar to that demanded by the Americans and Australians - brought forward urgently.

The EU's plan on terrorism envisages a directive being drawn up this autumn to implement the scheme, which would enable both regular cleared passengers to get through security checks quicker and enable the security services to check passenger names against warning lists of terror suspects.

The scheme is part of a package of measures agreed yesterday at the meeting called as an act of solidarity in response to last week's arrests in connection to the alleged airline plot.

The ministers were briefed by the director general of MI5, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, and the head of special operations at Scotland Yard, assistant commissioner Andy Hayman.

The measures also include:

· An urgent £237,000 research project into how to detect liquid explosives, which were at the centre of last week's alleged plot;

· New moves against internet sites that incite terrorism and detail bomb-making techniques;

· The adoption across Europe of the new British regime of hand luggage checks at airports;

· Further measures to curb radicalisation and recruitment among Europe's Muslim communities;

· A Euro-summit of security services later this month to "pre-empt the terrorists' next plot".

Mr Reid said after the meeting: "What's clear to all of us is that we face a persistent and very real threat across Europe. It is a threat we face here in Britain as individuals and as communities, but it's not unique to the UK. It affects us all across the European Union."

Mr Reid said in considering the use of advanced passenger data it was important to distinguish between "positive profiling" and "ethnic or racial profiling". It was not clear last night how far Britain was prepared to go in signing up to the use of such advanced passenger data but the Home Office has two pilot schemes running, Project Iris and Project Semaphore. The latter involves screening 10 million passengers a year on selected international routes.

The recent Home Office plan to turn the immigration service around also includes proposals for a "trusted traveller" scheme which would allow 40,000 passengers to fast-track through airport security checks by the end of this year with rapid expansion to follow. More stringent security checks however are to be carried out on travellers from "high-risk" countries or routes creating a two-tier system of passengers.

A Spectator/YouGov poll published this morning suggests that a majority - 55% - would be happy to see passenger profiling at airports.

But ministers acknowledged yesterday that some EU countries, particularly France and the Netherlands, want to go much further and introduce explicit checks on Muslim travellers. Claude Moraes, an Asian Labour MEP, said yesterday the random checks he faced travelling around Europe had increased in recent years and warned that assuming that race or religion was a predictor of terrorism was a "recipe for disaster".

Professor Takis Takimidis of Matrix Chambers said yesterday that positive profiling could be a disguised way of racial profiling.

"For instance if the authorities only profile those who have Asian names. But if they profile everybody who is a passenger, I can't see what could be wrong with this. But it's very hard to say whether 'positive profiling' would be problematic without knowing exactly what it is.

"Even if the comparison contains an ethnic element then that might be justified on grounds of national security. On the other hand, if anyone who has a criminal record is stopped that may well be a violation of a person's free movement within the EU. That has nothing to do with discrimination but it may be disproportionate interference. Basically it depends on the circumstances."