Brazilians reciprocate on US travel policy
Michael Kalus
mkalus at thedarkerside.to
Fri Jan 2 07:03:31 PST 2004
http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/zones/sundaytimes/newsst/newsst1073024337.asp
SAO PAULO - Brazilian police photographed and fingerprinted all arriving
Americans on Thursday - tit-for-tat for a similar US program that begins
next week.
In all, 230 American citizens were thus identified Thursday at Brazil's
largest international airport here under what a federal police spokesman
called a "judicial decision."
That decision was handed down earlier in the week by Judge Julier
Sebastiao da Silva of the federal bench in the central Brazilian city of
Mato Grosso based on "the principle of reciprocity," although it could
still be annulled by the federal government.
The identification measures were not immediately put into effect at the
airport in Rio de Janeiro, where federal police said they had not yet
received official instructions, according to the Brazilian press agency,
Agencia Brasil.
Beginning January 5, immigration officials at all US international
airports will vet visitors' passports and visas and pose the usual
questions - before taking their fingerprints and photographs.
That is phase one of US-VISIT, a 380-million-dollar effort to track down
terrorists. Visitors from 27 countries whose citizens do not need visas
to enter the United States - mostly in Europe, are exempted.
By 2005, every port-of-entry on land, sea and air will have the
fingerprint and photographic technology. All US visas and passports
will eventually include photos and fingerprints - called "biometric
identifiers."
The program takes effect after the United States raised its terror alert
to its next-to-highest level in December. Intelligence indicated that
al-Qaeda was planning to hijack airliners for a repeat of its September
11 attacks in which 3,000 died.
/AFP/
-
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