Insecure ID cards phased out as travel document to strengthen UK borders

From currently (Friday 1 October 2021), most EU, EEA and Swiss citizens will will need a valid passport to enter the British isles as the governing administration stops accepting countrywide id (ID) cards as a journey doc.

These ID playing cards are some of the most abused documents found by Border Force officers and, very last year, almost 50 percent of all wrong documents detected at the border were EU, EEA or Swiss ID cards.

They can be easily abused by men and women attempting to occur into the country illegally and by stopping accepting these sorts of ID, the authorities can avert organised legal gangs and unlawful migrants making use of them to enter the United kingdom unlawfully.

Household Secretary Priti Patel said:

The Uk has a happy historical past of currently being open to the world, and World Britain will carry on in that custom. But we ought to clamp down on the criminals that seek out to enter our nation illegally working with cast paperwork.

By ending the use of insecure ID playing cards we are strengthening our border and delivering on the people’s precedence to choose back command of our immigration technique.

We are undertaking this as aspect of our New Program for Immigration, which will be company on individuals who search for to abuse the technique, and honest on individuals who engage in by the guidelines.

ID playing cards are a notoriously insecure kind of journey document, because:

• some cards do not have biometric data, creating it a lot easier to falsify the knowledge recorded
• they are far more difficult to cross-reference with legal file databases than passports
• although a new ID card stability standard is staying introduced throughout the EU, playing cards will continue to be in circulation for the next 5 to 10 yrs which do not conform to these expectations
• inconsistencies in the structure and safety capabilities of the playing cards make them less complicated to counterfeit than passports

The go was first introduced in October 2020.

This improve fulfils our commitment to get back manage of our borders and implies EU, EEA and Swiss citizens now adhere to the same guidelines for getting into the UK as travellers from the relaxation of the world. Even so, the authorities stays committed to preserving the legal rights of EU citizens who have made their lives in the British isles, and as we agreed when we left the EU, those in the EU Settlement Scheme or with equivalent rights will be able to carry on employing ID cards right until at least 2025.

The go also marks an essential phase in the government’s extended-time period approach to supply a absolutely digitised border, offering a more streamlined and seamless consumer working experience for travellers coming into the British isles.

Those devoid of a passport from 1 Oct are liable to be refused entry to the United kingdom – even though Border Force officers will keep the ideal to physical exercise discretion on unique conditions.