Revival of Fingerprinting Expected to Have Adverse Impact on Tourism

By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter

The government plans to require all foreign nationals visiting Korea to have their fingerprints registered starting as early as 2010 to fight terrorism and crimes committed by foreigners.

If the measure is implemented, Korea will be the third country to do so, following the United States and Japan.

The Ministry of Justice said Saturday that it will propose to revise the Immigration Law so that all foreign nationals, either for short-term stay or long-term, are obliged to provide their biometric information to the Korean authorities when they come to the country. It will submit the revision bill to the National Assembly in the second half of next year, and the new regulation, if passed, will take effect as early as 2010.

Up to 2003, Korean immigration officials used to fingerprint long-term foreign residents who were to stay here for a year or more when giving them alien registration numbers. But the Roh Moo-hyun administration scrapped the biometric data collection, following criticism that it could infringe on human rights, said a ministry official.

However, the government has kept Koreans' fingerprints on record and this has steadily raised the demand that the government should also revive the rules requiring fingerprint checks for foreigners, with some critics calling the absence of foreign fingerprint checks ``reverse discrimination'' against locals.

``We may face the same accusation that the fingerprinting would infringe upon human rights. But it is a worldwide trend to strengthen monitoring of foreigners against possible terror attacks,'' the ministry official said. ``Korea has a growing number of foreign residents and thus seeing more crimes by foreign nationals. But the government has no information about foreigners in investigating their crimes, unlike Koreans whose fingerprints and other basic personal information are registered.''

Impact on Tourism

The ministry has yet to decide whether to only fingerprint foreigners newly coming to Korea or to include those who have been here since 2003, the official added.

Many foreigners showed a negative to cautious reaction to the plan.

Mike Weisbart, who has stayed here since 1995, said, ``My fingerprints have been on file at the immigration office since 1995 and I have no problems with that. But for short-term visitors, I'm not sure why they need it and, if the system is annoying or invasive, it might run counter to the government's plan to attract more tourists.''

He said that he basically believes that it is the right of the country to demand visitors give the information if they want to come here. But he said it could have an adverse impact on the government's plan to attract more incoming tourists. ``If the system is poor and is inconvenient for visitors, they will go back to their country and speak poorly of Korea,'' Weisbart said.

Another tourism expert, who declined to be named, said the Ministry of Justice's plan, to be implemented in 2010, contradicts the Ministry of Tourism's plan to attract as many foreign tourists through various promotion projects.

The U.S. obliges foreign visitors to register their fingerprints and a photo since 2004 as an anti-terrorism measure after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. Japan began the system in November last year.

In Korea, the number of foreign residents is estimated at 1.1 million as of now, a figure equal to more than 2 percent of total Korean population. The Justice Ministry estimates the number of illegally residing foreign nationals at 220,000.

rahnita@koreatimes.co.kr