The Ministry of Justice will propose that all foreign nationals — both short-term visitors and long-term sojourners — provide biometric info to the authorities when they enter the country from 2010.
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Many Koreans oppose American and Japanese influences yet they adopt some of the worst of them, such as this. As with Japan, where they want to treat any foreigner as if they are a criminal, this will not endear Korea to anyone that wishes to visit and will not be useful since the country is reluctant to even perform their own background checks upon foreigners who come here to teach nor does the government provide their police with proper translators when dealing with foreign nationals.
Implementing this is basically throwing more money down an unattractive hole if there is no checking of this biometric information with some international criminal database at the time of entry into Korea.
If at least they opened the unmanned biometric immigration gates, like in HK, to visitors accepting to give their fingerprints, I’d readily go along. If think HK airport is the only place that accepts non-residents in such programmes (I’ve seen unmanned biometric immigration gates in quite a few countries, including recently Korea, but all except HK were restricted to nationals or residents).
The way Japan fingerprints foreign nationals upon entry is the EXACT same way the U.S. also fingerprints foreign nationals upon entry. The US has been doing it longer, in fact.
Is it really a big deal to put your index finger on a piece of glass for 5 seconds while you’re waiting for the Immigration dud(e) to process your passport?
Both index fingers, btw. No big deal for me, but it would better if the whole process would be automated — after vetting by humans once, like in HKIA.
Here’s an amusing little exercise, dda: please tell us 3 ways in which Korea is superior to Hong Kong.
ps – ‘…if the whole process were automated…”
pps – thanks for the greasemonkey bandage
Actually, while the use of were is appropriate for use in a second conditional sentence which expresses an hypothesis, the use of was is also allowed in informal cases, such as dda’s screed.
Wow! Here’s another try at it:
Actually, while the use of were is appropriate in a second conditional sentence which expresses an hypothesis, was is also allowed in informal cases such as dda’s screed.
Using biometric identification is NOT “treating any foreigner as if they are a criminal”, it’s just improved security against rampant and growing passport / visa / immigration fraud.
And it’s the way of the future for all countries, eventually — get used to it. Doesn’t bother me none…
Can’t really think of any — except maybe the command of Korean.
The Japanese and Koreans had curtailed their use of fingerprinting foreigners over the last few years. It is new post-9/11 passport/immigration measures introduced by the United States that are responsible for recent developments that have seen other countries reverse this trend. Whether or not this makes us safer – or, instead, simply makes us feel safer – remains to be seen.
It’s a somewhat surprising mistake after Korean residents in Japan fought so hard to get fingerprinting ended. For a while, it stopped for all non-Japanese. Then Japan started it again for all foreigners except those contentious Zainichi and now ironically the ROK follows Japan in following the US. That says a lot.
If they’d just use irises, all that Hollywood association of criminality with taking fingerprints would be avoided.
#3,
“The way Japan fingerprints foreign nationals upon entry is the EXACT same way the U.S. also fingerprints foreign nationals upon entry. The US has been doing it longer, in fact.”
Not a convincing argument to those of us who aren’t American, you know.
#10,
Exactly (although the jury is still out as to whether it’s supposed to make the local populace feel safer or less so).
#11,
What’s ironic is that Korean Immigration was still fingerprinting foreigners back when the Korean government raised the issue with Japan.
It’s so much more than just putting a finger on a bit of glass people.
It’s bio-political tattooing dammit.
What is at stake here is nothing less than the new normal bio-political relationship between citizens and the state. This relation no longer has anything to do with free and active participation in the public sphere, but concerns the enrollment and the filing away of the most private and incommunicable aspect of subjectivity: I mean the body’s biological life
I’m curious, are ordinary Korean citizens (who have not committed any crime) fingerprinted? For example, in the process of getting their citizenship card?
Americans will have to pipe in whether or not they are also required to give biometrics when returning via international flights.
Yes, Koreans have their fingerprints on file. Those who have reached the age of majority, at least.
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