Immigration officers hail new border control system

EPHRAIM KEORENG
Staff Writer | Thursday April 22, 2010 00:00

 

Mmegi caught up with Thabo Kwapa, an immigration officer, during a training session in Gaborone for officers on the use of the new technology. The exercise was conducted by the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs.  Kwapa said that once they have a client's picture and bio data, there is no longer any need for 'him or her to go from one office to the other in order to have documents like passports processed. It is therefore time saving,' she said.

Another officer Mantsho Moatshe said besides just stamping passports at the border, the PBCS enables them to know who has passed through the border, at what time, information that is good both for generating departmental reports and most importantly for security.

The police or any security organs would also know whether or not criminal suspects have crossed the border. 'In the system, a person travelling should be identified with a particular passport. It would not be like the old one, where people could take someone elses passport and insert their own picture. This one even has fingerprints on it, so forgers will be caught quite easily at the border. Besides, people's movements can be traced easily through the new system. Every time you leave or enter the country the system records and even alerts other borders that you have used a certain border post. It would also show if you have overstayed (beyond the number of days you were supposed to spend in the country),' said Moatshe.

Another officer, who did not give his name also added that if an e-passport is stolen, they would not necessarily have to write and circulate a savingram to all border posts as has been the case in the past, but rather 'we would write here at the head office, which is linked to all the borders on the PBCS, that so and so's passport has been stolen,' he said.

Regarding security against hackers, the officer said they have a system dubbed Government Data Networks (GDN), a system so airtight that it cannot be penetrated by cyber-criminals.

The ministry expects that all officers who deal with the PBCS will have completed their training by September.