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Australia biometric visa program to cost $69 million

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Australia’s Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, announced that the new electronic visa program in the country will cost roughly $69 million and require citizens from about ten unnamed countries to submit fingerprint samples and an image of their face, according to a Secure Computing article.

The measure is put forth by the government in an attempt to better enable their border protection agents in apprehending known terrorists or criminals trying to gain entry to the country on forged documents.

In addition to trying to utilize biometric technology to better identify dangerous people trying to enter their country, Rudd is also seeking the creation of a multi-agency counter-terrorism control center whose intent would be to ensure better coordination of intelligence. Rudd and the Foreign Minister Stephen Smith have acknowledged that they will identify the countries whose citizens will be required to submit to biometric data collection for visa applications soon.

Read the full story here. [end] 

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