You can soon travel to the UK without a passport. Here’s how it works

You might soon travel to the United Kingdom without a passport as the UK's Border Force Agency is planning to introduce facial recognition systems at the airports. The move will completely replace the requirement of carrying a passport to the British airports. 

Inspired by the traveling experiences in Dubai and Australia, Agency’s Director General Phil Douglas proposed a similar plan that can be introduced in the UK. 

Speaking about it, Douglas told the Times, “I had to apply for an electronic travel authorization in advance and used my smartphone to read the chip in my passport. That sent the image of me in the chip to the Australian authorities. When I arrived in Australia, I didn’t even have to get my passport out of my bag. It is a really interesting concept.”

How the face recognition system will work?

• The Border Force plans to trial passport-free travel at British airports in 2024. 
• As per the plan, the current eGates system will be upgraded to identify passengers through facial recognition, eliminating the need for physical passport presentation. If successful, a nationwide hardware procurement process will follow. 
• The current eGates system uses facial recognition by checking faces against passport data, while the upgraded version will rely on centralized data for enhanced efficiency. 

Douglas further noted, the system will also help the government collect more information about the people showing up at its borders, including their compliance with immigration laws.

“We will know if they’ve been in the UK before. We’ll know what their compliance with immigration laws is. And we’ll know if there’s any records of them on our security systems. So, there will be some people who won’t be getting on the plane,” he added, as reported by The Times. 

The UK authorities have already been registering biometric details obtained from the passports of British and Irish travelers.

Singapore and Finland also offer facial recognition systems at airports

Singapore's Changi Airport, in 2023, achieved a milestone by eliminating passports at biometric checks, introducing authentication tokens for check-in post a successful pilot. Simultaneously, Finland became the first European country to trial digital travel documents (DTC) at Helsinki Airport in August, offering a swift and reliable border-crossing experience.