I was going to ignore this obviously misleading post, but it is now being widely retweeted by the the usual suspects. It is also a super example of #FBPE #Brexit 'confirmation bias'... 🙄 🧵 (1/7) #badbrexittakes #tourism
@julianHjessop @DCBMEP A huge proportion of EU citizens only have an ID card and do not own a passport, which is now required to visit the UK at our insistence! Do tell me how that is not going to have a massive negative impact on EU tourism to the UK? Get a passport? Or just go elsewhere…
@TobiFrenzen @julianHjessop @DCBMEP The problem for UK immigration is that many EU cards currently in circulation still have poor security and are relatively easy to forge.
@youngs_colin @TobiFrenzen @julianHjessop @DCBMEP Not any more. Most of them have been machine readable for years and the EU brought in a uniform standard a while ago which requires biometric information on a chip embedded in the card, just like passports.
@TJTreacy @TobiFrenzen @julianHjessop @DCBMEP Yes indeed, but the problem for UK immigration is that many cards in circulation today are still of the old non-standard type and not necessarily ICAO-compliant. By the end of the decade, that situation will have changed, but for now the problem remains.
@youngs_colin @TobiFrenzen @julianHjessop @DCBMEP There were no security concerns pre Brexit when EU ID cards were accepted for travel into the U.K. so what’s changed? The older style cards aren’t any less secure than they were then.
@TJTreacy @TobiFrenzen @julianHjessop @DCBMEP Oh there most certainly were security concerns in the UK immigration service about EU cards, notably about forgability. The low-grade ones were easier to spot, others costing thousands were visually hard to differentiate from the genuine article.
@youngs_colin @TobiFrenzen @julianHjessop @DCBMEP 1/Anyone who’s got the kind of money and contacts needed to spend thousands a high quality fake ID will just get a fake passport instead.
@youngs_colin @TobiFrenzen @julianHjessop @DCBMEP 2/I’ve had a lot of dealings with the immigration service. My experience was that they their systems are hopelessly inefficient and disorganised and they are substantially understaffed. That’s a bigger threat to border security than European ID cards.
@TJTreacy @TobiFrenzen @julianHjessop @DCBMEP I used to work for them and know their strengths and weaknesses well. Where they're pretty good is spotting obvious fakes on the frontline and have forensic facilities at most major airports to check forgeries. But yes, substantially understaffed they certainly are.