Securing the Border of the Future
By Peter Sutcliffe, Borders Technology Lead, Fujitsu.
As automated border control systems continue to be adopted worldwide, we must consider their impact on security. Despite many benefits, automation has reduced border officers’ time to assess risks, ask questions, intervene, and ensure zero erosion of security. Without additional measures, the advent of contactless e-gates and biometric corridors will only further diminish an officer’s ability to perform vital risk assessments and detect anomalous behaviour.
Unintentionally, automation has created capability gaps—a clear and present danger to border security.
Transforming border security
The near-global adoption of biometric passports transformed border security, enabling automated border control systems, typically e-gates, to reduce queues, shorten wait times, and help governments manage rising passenger volumes.
Today, forward-thinking governments—including the UK’s Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) app, and Europe’s Travel to Europe app—are rolling out mobile identity solutions, enabling passengers to interact directly with border agencies and benefit from even faster, more seamless processing at the border.
The unique value of manual operations
But document authenticity and rightful ownership are not the border officer’s only concerns. Arguably, that’s the bare minimum. Back in the day of manual operations, ensuring the document was genuine—was neither forged nor counterfeit and belonged to the person presenting it—was the basic starting point for asking more exploratory questions to establish the purpose and duration of stay, and deciding if the person should be granted permission to enter or subjected to further scrutiny.
An officer’s ability to observe, detect, and intervene remains invaluable. These skills have been developed and refined over decades, and serve as a robust defence against human trafficking, document fraud, smuggling, illegal immigration, and terrorism.
Faced with today’s significantly larger passenger volumes, it would be inconceivable to return to an entirely manual operation. Ports and borders would not cope. Queues would be hours long. And transport operators would need to cut routes and reduce capacity, negatively impacting travel, tourism, and economic growth.
Automation by default
Automation is essential. In fact, automated border control should become the default. Manual intervention should be reserved for the few instances where technology is unable to resolve anomalies or reduce risk to acceptable levels.
There are several impressive examples of technology-enabled borders where governments have adopted automation on a massive scale, and are now exploring the potential uses of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to further drive down risk. In Singapore, the Immigration Checkpoint Authority (ICA) is trialling AI to identify potential threats in cargo. And in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates has launched an AI-powered system performing real-time biometric matching of passengers who, without presenting any documents, simply walk through the arrivals corridor, cutting immigration processing times from minutes to seconds.
What automation doesn’t do (yet)
Where automation falls short is in answering more investigative, open-ended questions, such as: What relationships does this person have with known persons of interest? What does their observable physical behaviour reveal about their intent or potential for malicious activity? While there are tools that can help, the challenge remains the identification of indicators, attributes, and behaviours that have not yet been revealed because the data doesn’t exist, isn’t available, or isn’t readily obvious or knowable.
The next iteration of automation must codify and amplify border officers’ skills—and implement them in a way that consistently delivers even higher levels of detection. This will support the professional development of border officers, enabling their skills to be deployed in other, more demanding, and high-value operational scenarios.
A UK perspective
In the UK in 2023, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) inspected several of the UK’s automated borders and acknowledged risks caused by increased automation. Worryingly, this included an insufficient ability to detect potential victims of human trafficking. The inspection found deficiencies in staffing, communications, data, and training, leading to the conclusion that “the protection of the border is neither effective nor efficient”.
Operational improvements can always be identified. Corrective action should include an evaluation of which technological innovations prove the most effective and efficient in delivering performance and security improvements. Reassuringly, the UK government intends to leverage AI-powered automation to achieve better security outcomes. The UK Home Office 2030 Digital Strategy commits to transforming digital services and supporting frontline operations with increased levels of automation and better tools that leverage new AI technologies. This commitment will deliver frictionless border crossings with minimal human checking; increased freight-checking capabilities to detect and deter illegal imports and human trafficking; and enhanced self-service passport checks.
Questions to answer
The question we need to ask ourselves today is: What technology can we deploy to close capability gaps, strengthen security, and leverage the invaluable skills of border officers to assess risk and detect anomalous behaviour?
Answers must ensure that the latest operational challenges inform policy and keep pace with technological innovation. The technology exists to deliver powerful insights to border officers, giving them—and us—confidence that automation is a force for good and does not unintentionally erode the security we rely on to protect citizens and travel the world for business and leisure.
