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| Europe |
| FT: Warning to EU on passport deadline |
| 2005-04-01 |
| The chairman of the congressional committee overseeing US immigration laws warned on Thursday that Congress was unlikely to extend an October deadline for the European Union to adopt biometric passports. The warning, from Republican James Sensenbrenner, raises the possibility that many European travellers to the US could be forced to acquire visas after the October 26 deadline, adding substantially to the time and expense involved in visits to the US. In a letter to the European Commission, Mr Sensenbrenner said Congress was "unlikely" to respond to the EU's request for a longer deadline. "The increased awareness and concern, of both the American public and most members of Congress regarding continued weakness in US border security, will make an additional extension difficult to accomplish," he wrote. "I strongly suggest that the European Commission plan without the expectation that there will be an extension of the deadline." The visa-waiver scheme, under which travellers from 27 mostly European countries can easily enter the US, has been criticised by some Republicans in Congress as a loophole that could be exploited by terrorists. In an effort to appease those concerns, the US has insisted that all visa-waiver countries adopt passports with fingerprints or other biometric data incorporated in the documents to help safeguard against stolen passports being used by terrorists to enter the US. Visa-waiver countries account for about 13m travellers to the US each year, and the State Department lacks the resources to begin issuing visas to those travellers. |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #5 |
| Posted by: 3dc 2005-04-01 5:21:06 PM |
| #4 |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom 2005-04-01 3:11:13 PM |
| #3 |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-04-01 3:04:26 PM |
| #2 |
| Posted by: MacNails 2005-04-01 3:02:24 PM |
| #1 |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2005-04-01 2:56:55 PM |