The Justice Ministry is proposing a revised bill that would fingerprint and photograph all incoming foreigners ala Japan and the United States:
The Justice Ministry has proposed a revision bill on immigration so that foreigners entering Korea will be required to have their photos taken and fingerprints registered at airports as early as July of next year, the ministry said yesterday.
The procedure will be mandatory for every international visitor except for diplomats and those aged 17 or younger, according to the immigration administration team under the ministry. Those who refuse will not be allowed to enter the country.
Good move, as far as I am concerned.
(HT to reader)
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Good move? Please. Even for a person with authoritarian tendencies such as myself, I’ve witnessed it in Japan as a mere pointless exercise that does nothing to deter criminals or terrorist, benefits only contractors on the government/taxpayer teet, and hurt the economy (seriously, I know Silicon Valley entrepreneurs with libertarian values who won’t come to Japan anymore because of the fingerprinting).
Agreed. Another useless tit exercise aimed at quelling the Jessica Kims. And why next July? Why not this July? And what about all the dirty foreigners who are already here?
Even tourists? If so, what a wonderful strategy for discouraging tourism.
Personally, I will file this in the “Who Cares” department one way or another.
That in light of the information sharing agreements being negotiated at the G20.
Advanced Nations, particularly the US and UK would like to inplement national biometric databases, but generally meat stiff public, and leagal resistence. So instead they tackle the issue piecemeal, including fingerprints of criminals, then those of military service members, then in England it was the schoolchildren. Wouldn’t it be sneaky though, when a nation to increase its fingerprint database, realizes it can do so by swapping data collected by proxy of other nation. This may or may not be intentional, but sooner or later some politician will realize it is practical and do it.
Aren’t fingerprints already required in the US?
It’s a few years now, so maybe my memory is faulty, but I’m sure I was fingerprinted on my last visit there.
kpmsprtd, such fingerprinting has not affected tourism to the US or Japan, why would it affect Korea?
Arghaeri, fingerprinting in the US has been policy for several years now.
One wonders if the ROK will also follow Japan’s current proposals to monitor the whereabouts of foreign residents with newly designed RFID embedded alien registration cards.
NONE OF Y’ALL HAVE BEEN HANGING AROUND HERE IN EXPECTATION THAT THE PLACE IS ONE DAY GOING TO BEND OVER BACKWARDS TO MAKE YOU FEEL WELCOME, RIGHT?
FULLY AWARE THAT YOUR POSITION ONLY RANGES BETWEEN WILLINGLY TOLERATED-BARELY TOLERATED-BITTERLY TOLERATED, RIGHT?
Ok, moving on then. Just put your damn finger on the fucking image sensor and then get on with things. You’re a waeg. One day they’re going to slap a badge on you, waeg. You know it’s going to happen, waeg, and there’s nothing you can do about it. SURPRISE!! You’re just a waeg, and Here is Korea!
PS- yes, even tourists. The only tourists who actually ARE tourists are 3-day shoppers from other Asian countries. They don’t mind a bit. Everyone else is here to take something from Korea – you know it, they know it. So on your way in, they’ll take a picture of your fingertip. Deal?
At least in HK, I exchanged my fingerprints (my two index fingers) for the use of the eChannel. In and out of HK in 15 seconds…
I don’t understand the panic: USA does this, what’s the issue with Korea doing that? If you have problems with the law, just don’t come.
As did I. There are better places to spend time and money.
Korea already has all ten of my fingerprints on record at immigration so if they want my butt-print and my blood test, I will give that at the airport, right after I rub my penis on the x-ray machine for good luck.
Frankly, as an American, I disappointed at the direction taken towards allegedly insuring security in America. My disappointment started right after some immigration guy insisted on knowing why I wanted to come back to America and what the address of my dead father was, the same that I had come back to bury. Silly me, I was raised to think that being an American meant that I did not have to answer to anyone about where I was going or why — only that I was an American, but now, that is not good enough.
I conclude that the abuses of the average American in traveling, in America, is more so designed to push Americans into accepting a national ID card — something which has been widely rejected at the grass-root level so far.
I was present at a meeting called by a National Assemblyman regarding this proposal a couple months ago. Present at the meeting were several law professors, human rights lawyers, someone representing migrant workers, and two representatives of the Korea Immigration Service.
They presented the fingerprinting and photographing proposal at that time. When it was my turn to speak, I reminded them that the 2007 Basic Act on the Treatment of Foreigners Residing in Korea mandates that all proposed regulations and laws that will affect foreigners must be reviewed by a policy committee created by the same Act, to ensure legislation is fair and consistent with international commitments.
At that time, the proposal had not yet gone through the Basic Act policy committee, and to my knowledge, still has not.
Korea doesn’t follow its own laws as often as I’d like.
All the crazy, anti-freedom-of-movement policies put into effect since 911 HAVE affected tourism. And not just tourism, but international study at American universities as well. The process is not yet complete, but it is well underway.
When there’s nought left in America but morons who want daily rectal probings to ensure their safety, civilized people won’t go to America.
Hurr and Durr
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htterr/articles/20090111.aspx
And that’s just a very low tech solution.
WARRANT-LESS QUESTIONING OF “SUSPICIOUS FOREIGNERS”
Did anyone catch the KT version of this story:
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/04/116_43722.html
It mentions more than fingerprinting, it says the Fingerprinting Bill includes measures to “to summon and question ‘suspicious’ foreigners without a court warrant.”
It also has the Korea Immigration Service saying “These investigative measures have been implemented even in the absence of a law. But they will be inserted into the bill for transparency.”
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