UK May Allow US Security Checks on Passengers Before Transatlantic Travel

Local Editor

Passengers flying to the United States from Britain could face strict searches and interrogations by US Homeland Security staff at UK airports, after the British government showed an interest in entering into a "preclearance" agreement with the US.

Documents obtained by the Guardian show US authorities approached Britain and four other EU member states about setting up preclearance checks at European airports at two meetings of the European council's transatlantic relations working party [Cotra] in July.

Policy director of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, Saira Grant, described pre-departure clearance checks on British soil as "totally unnecessary." She said: "They would be costly and would further infringe on the civil and personal liberty of law-abiding innocent travellers to the US."

The US Department of Homeland Security already has staff working at several European airports who issue "advice" on which passengers should not be allowed to travel to the US.

Since December 2011, an agreement between the US and EU on the transfer of passenger data allows Homeland Security and US border authorities to exchange and retain for up to 15 years information such as travel itineraries, passenger addresses and payment methods - a deal that critics say violates basic European principles.

Moreover, according to the document- a German government response to a parliamentary question submitted by the Left party - Britain is the only country out of the five EU states to have expressly welcomed the proposal.

Left party German MP Andrej Hunko, who submitted the parliamentary question, said the negotiations were a reminder that the dystopian vision of a "transatlantic security space" involving an exchange of financial records, fingerprints and personal data, was already a reality.
"We cannot accept US authorities obtaining quasi-operative competences at European airports," he said.

"After recent revelations on US espionage activity, this would send out the wrong signal. Instead, we should consider cancelling EU-US deals on data exchanges between police and secret services such as TFTP [trivial file transfer protocol]," he added.

The German government further said it was extremely cautious about such proposals.

The Netherlands is said to be looking into the financial and legal feasibility of the proposals, while France has called for financial support from the US in exchange for a deal.

The document said: "Sweden's first reaction was to express skepticism, calling for further analysis of the consequences on the Schengen agreement [on open borders in Europe] and the European convention on human rights."

Currently, Ireland is the only country in Europe that has preclearance checks for passengers flying to the US, covering Dublin and Shannon airports - an arrangement that has been in place since 2009.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team