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What's so
smart about smartcards?
Identity cards have always been a controversial proposal in Britain. Since September 11th initial talk of national ID cards has subsided. But is David Blunkett's asylum-seeker
smart card proposal of 29 October just such a scheme by the back door? Out There News investigates for you.
Smart ID cards will replace the existing standard acknowledgement letter issued to all new asylum applicants from January 2002. They will include photograph and fingerprint data and will become replacement cash debit card for vouchers from autumn 2002. The government say the new cards will "help combat fraud" but the Refugee Council and a top information security expert tell OTN that the issues go much deeper than that.
Asylum Smartcards todayÖ
"We recognise asylum seekers need an ID card," says Fazil Kawani, Director of Communications for the
Refugee Council. The question is, what's so smart about a smartcard?
It's not fingerprints or photographs - all asylum seekers are already required to submit these to the Home Office
says Kawani.
Are smartcards solutions seeking a problem? (74 seconds)
To prevent terrorism?. Kawani
says terrorists are generally the
last people to seek asylum.
Why refugees aren't terrorists
(60 seconds)
"These kinds of people have a lot of money, they have passports, they have everything, and they don't really need to seek asylum. So I don't think by producing cards for asylum seekers you can prevent anything."
It's not the card, it's the stigma
Kawani agrees that this new scheme could further damage relations between asylum-seekers
and law enforcement agencies.
"This kind of ID card can always be misused and very often black and ethnic minorities
[could be] stopped and searched and asked for their id, and that will definitely create tensions."
How it feels to be stopped and searched (60 seconds)
It's not the card, it's the cost
Kawani believes that the government is repeating the mistake of the recently-scrapped
voucher
system.
"It's always very expensive; the amount of money they spend on administration for asylum seekers and refugees is huge compared with entitlement."
A national ID system would cost one to two billion pounds a year, requiring:
… Four years plus to set up
… Tens of thousands of staff
… Screening of 40 million applicants
...National ID cards tomorrow?
Dr Ross Anderson, one of the world's top experts on security engineering, told
OTN:
"The asylum-seeker smart card proposal looks remarkably like another attempt to get a national ID card going by the back door. There have been so many such attempts over the years that they are pretty
recognisable".
In 1953 the last British ID card scheme (set up during WWII) was abolished. Michael Howard fared no better as Home Secretary in 1995, when his ID card scheme was rejected.
So how has September 11th reignited talk of national schemes? Check out our timeline below.
ID ideas: the trans-atlantic timeline
In the US, database manufacturer Larry Ellison called for a national ID card system in a
TV interview on
September 21.
The online Drudge Report of
September 23 stated that a classified ID card plan for the US had recently been presented to President Bush, and that Bush had discussed the plan with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Shortly afterwards Prime Minister Tony Blair and Home Secretary David Blunkett confirmed they were considering mandatory ID cards. But by
October 1, UK media were reporting that the government had 'ruled out' the introduction of compulsory ID cards.
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