Clearing passport control will take as little
as 10 seconds instead of minutes waiting for passport clearance thanks to the
system developed by the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs
(GDRFA) in Dubai.
A high-ranking official at the GDRFA told that by the end of the year, the system
will be fully operational in all Dubai Airports at the arrival and departure
terminals.
Brigadier Talal Ahmad Al Shanqeti, the general director assistant of Airport
Immigration Department at GDRFA-Dubai, said the ‘Next Generation Borders’
system collects details of passengers 48 hours before they board an aircraft.
The system starts to collect the data when a
passenger buys an airline ticket.
“We had an agreement with Emirates airlines to
update the system with passengers’ details 48 hours before the flight. The
system makes necessary checks on passengers to issue clearance and send the
details to the passport control officer who will need only 10 seconds to stamp
the passport rather than three minutes in the past,” Brigadier Al Shanqeti told
The system has already been fully implemented
at Terminal 3 at Dubai International Airport while Terminal 1, 2 and Al Maktoum
International Airport are expected to be 100 percent
ready by end of the year.
“We have 65 employees working in a command room
to check the passengers’ details and send clearance to the passport control
officer so he only needs to identify the passenger in front of him before
stamping his passport. The system works on arrival and departures.”
The passport officer in the past used to take a
longer time to identify passengers in
situations where a name was similar to someone on the watch list but the new system will reduce waiting time because the
passenger had already been securely identified.
“In the past,
the officer used to take a minute or more to clear a passenger but the new
system helps the officer to clear four passengers in a minute,” Brigadier Al
Shanqeti added.
He said that even if the passenger makes a last
minute booking, his details will be in the system an hour before the flight
timing.
“There has been an increase of seven to nine percent in a number
of passengers travelling through Dubai airport and the new system will help
decrease clearance time for passengers and make them happy,” he said.
The GDRFA Dubai has 1,600 passport control
officers working round the clock. “In Dubai, a passport control officer clears
55,000 passengers per year on an average while globally the ratio is 17,000
passengers. With the new system in place, better results will be achieved.”
Brigadier Al Shanqeti praised the officers’
work at a ceremony held to recognise their efforts.
Last year, an officer topped the list for
clearing 133,000 passengers in a year.
