Click to play videoLondon: Come November, all of you who plan to study in the United Kingdom (UK) will have to get a biometric ID card, the latest in the series of tough immigration rules being implemented in Britain.
It promises to check crime, but also compromises the safety of the card holder.
The British government on Thursday unveiled its new biometric identity card which it will start issuing from November this year.
First to get these from November 25 are students and marriage visa applicants from non-European union countries, apparently the two categories most prone to abusing immigration rules.
Within three years all foreign national applying for leave to enter or remain in the UK will be required to have a card with around 90 per cent of foreign nationals in Britain covered by the scheme by 2014 through 2015.
While the government says the ID cards will help combat illegal immigration and crime, there are concerns over privacy and safety of the data, which will be added to a proposed national identity register.
However, anti-card campaigners say this will lead to a surveillance society.
No2ID Guy Herbert says, “Our concerns are that there is a national ID register essentially a means for government to index throughout their own life.”
Each card will carry a picture and a chip holding the person's name and date of birth, fingerprint record, immigration status and other biometric data.
Next year onwards, the ID card scheme will extend to British and EU citizens, especially those in high risk areas like airport workers.
All passport applicants will be added to the scheme in 2011 and the government hopes that by 2017, everyone in the UK will have their identities on plastic.
(With in puts from Divya Gojer)
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