The Hindu Business Line : Wanted: A global passport

I HAVE been subjected to full body and hand baggage searches quite frequently by airport security personnel in the recent past. The fact that I am brown and sport a beard (`middle Eastern looking,' as the saying among security personnel goes and reported when the media lets its guard slip) may have something to do with it.

Of course, it has not helped that I always carry a dark coloured backpack (the preferred bomb transportation vehicle in the London subway train bombings). Since my lack of skills in finding the location of the boarding gate makes me generally anxious in international airports, I closely fit the profile of a suicide bomber.

Profiling was for long a bad word among US policy-makers. Though studies have shown that African-Americans have been routinely stopped and ticketed for traffic violations and other misdemeanours on the highways at a larger rate than the general population, authorities have stoutly denied racial profiling. Of course, having denied that there is a problem, they usually follow up with diversity training for their employees but I don't know if that has helped.

Our present global security environment has made profiling somewhat acceptable. The Israelis, who seem to be the world specialists in the field, have landed lucrative contracts from US airport authorities. The constant search to find new methods to outwit potential terrorists has led even the most liberal administrator to consider profiling.

Though distasteful, if profiling prevents another bombing, it is considered worth it. (Of course, it is part of the sacrifices we have all begun making on the hope that it provides us with some security, but whether freedom should be sacrificed for security is best left for another day.) Logan Airport officials in Boston, from where the terrorists in September 2001 took off and hijacked the planes, are fairly open now about their profiling.

I don't mind the increased scrutiny I face. It seems more logical compared to the random identification formula for full searches (every 20th person, I've read) that results in elderly women in wheel chairs, suffering from emphysema and with oxygen tanks in tow being made to take off their shoes to check for bombs.

But surely there must be a better way, especially for frequent travellers. A new effort is called a `registered traveller' programme that is being tried out in four airports in the US. In Orlando Airport, a company called Verified Identity Pass Inc. issues a `clear card'. This is being undertaken on an experimental basis and involves scanning irises and fingerprints, a new biometric process. There is a fee of about $80 (Rs 3,600) a year.

The Transportation Security Administration, the government agency in charge of airport security in the US, invited members of the frequent flier programme of American Airlines on an experimental basis to participate in this at Logan Airport.

A special background check was instituted. A machine read either the iris or the index finger and you went through a fast lane, though you would still have to go also through baggage screening and metal detection.

The process saved the time of personal identification check. The pilot programme ended recently but participants were happy for the slight benefit that it conferred on them.

One can strike a comparison between this and the EZ Pass system on many US toll roadways. Here, one can pay a deposit with the concerned authority and obtain an electronic identification tag that is affixed to the windshield of the car. This enables one to drive through specified lanes at toll-booths without stopping and electronic readers directly deduct the toll amount from the amount in deposit.

Perhaps the Clear Card will be acceptable in more airports in the future. But in this era of globalisation, the global traveller still carries a national passport. Even when we talk of global companies, one should not forget that national individuals work in them, and often suffer the same indignities as the rest of us of visa interviews when they travel on work.

There are several other obstacles to travel apart from airport security. Take the visa, for example. Countries have laid down visa regulations (that include fee structures and facilities) usually on a reciprocal basis.

A US passport holder does not require a prior visa to several countries, under a Visa Waiver Programme. Nationals of countries whose citizens do require a visa have to plan well ahead.

If an Indian businessman and his US counterpart are at a fair in Germany, and a UK customer invites them to visit his firm, the US passport holder will be able to just stop on the way back, while the Indian will not have the same facility. Even the EU's Schengen Visa agreement, which covers 15 countries, does not cover the UK.

Visa concerns put a crimp in the operations of airlines. When an airline cancels one leg of your flight, it cannot re-route you through another country if you do not have a visa for transiting through that country. Not many countries these days sympathetically waive visa for transit passengers. Especially if you have that `middle-easterner' look!

An application for a visa often requires documentation that can be tantamount to harassment. When I last applied for a French visa, I discovered that the usual sheaf of papers was not enough. It was not sufficient to provide proof of health insurance valid for France.

A new requirement said that I had to provide specific documentation to assure the French authorities that my insurance company will pay to evacuate me back to the US in an emergency and I will not be a liability to the French. This, of course, took several calls, faxes, and another trip to the consulate.

I think the world is ready for a new travel document that is free of nationality. And most appropriately, it must be privatised. So what I propose is this. A group of individuals with impeccable credentials can form an organisation, say, called Global Traveller Unlimited. Anyone from anywhere in the world can apply to this organisation to receive a special travel document.

The organisation will conduct appropriate scrutiny of the individual with the assistance of his or her nation before they issue the Global Passport. Individuals will leave a deposit with them to cover for emergencies, health coverage, emergency evacuation, etc.

The company can lobby with several governments (guarantee the country a fee to be remitted per traveller per visit) to give the bearer of its Passport an EZ Pass-like facility through the country, any time, as many times. Carrying the card should entitle the bearer entry without a visa, and without security check.

OK. Can you pinch me after five minutes to let me dream a little while more?

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