US tightens visa waiver programme in wake of Paris attacks

Washington: The White House announced changes to the U.S. visa waiver programme on Monday so that security officials can more closely screen travellers from 38 countries allowed to enter the United States without obtaining visas before they travel.

Under the new measures, which were prompted by the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris by Islamic State militants, the Department of Homeland Security would immediately start to collect more information from travellers about past visits to "countries constituting a terrorist safe haven," the White House said.

The DHS would also look at pilot programs for collecting biometric information such as fingerprints from visa waiver travellers, a White House statement said.

The DHS would also ask Congress for additional powers, including the authority to increase fines for air carriers that fail to verify passport data, and the ability to require all travellers to use passports with embedded security chips, the White House said.

The White House also wants to expand the use of a "preclearance programme" in foreign airports to allow U.S. border officials to collect and screen biometric information before visa waiver travellers can board airplanes to the United States.

A task force in the House of Representatives would meet on Tuesday to discuss the programme and wants to craft legislation to pass "by the end of the year," Republican Representative Kevin McCarthy, the House Majority Leader, said on Monday.

McCarthy told reporters that lawmakers were interested in requiring all countries in the waiver programme to issue “e-passports” with chips and biometrics, and making sure they are submitting any information on lost and stolen passports to Interpol.

After the Paris attacks, the House passed a bill that would bar refugees from Syria and Iraq from entering the United States until security officials certify that they are not threats. The bill crippled President Barack Obama`s plan to accept 10,000 refugees in the next year and he has vowed to veto it.

U.S. officials have quietly acknowledged that they are far more worried about the possibility that would-be attackers from the Islamic State or other militant groups could enter the United States as travellers from visa waiver countries rather than as Syrian refugees.

The U.S. government routinely takes 18 to 24 months to screen would-be Syrian refugees before they are allowed to board flights to the United States.

In contrast, an estimated 20 million people fly to the United States each year from visa waiver countries such as France and Britain.

Officials have acknowledged that a European travelling to Syria to train with a group like Islamic State might be able to later enter the United States without significant scrutiny, if they are not already known to U.S. intelligence or partners such as Britain’s domestic intelligence agency MI5 or France`s DGSI.