E-gates: Immigration won’t be done in 18 secs as claimed before

Despite what was claimed earlier, e-passport holders will not be able to complete immigration formalities at Dhaka's Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) "in just 18 seconds".

Sources at the Dhaka airport confirmed to The Daily Star today.

The newly installed e-gates are only able to automatically identify the passengers and their passports. The passengers' visa and other information are being verified at the immigration desk like it used to be before the e-gates were installed.

What that means is, it will now take 18 seconds more for immigration formalities at the Dhaka airport than what it used to take.

According to the sources, e-gates are unable to automatically examine passengers' visa. That why the visas will be checked manually as before.

"E-gates do not have the capacity to process visas. E-gates will only check whether the passport belongs to the passport holder," said Additional DIG (Immigration) GM Azizur Rahman today.

"Visas can be fake, e-gates cannot identify that," he said adding that there is no way to store – at the e-gates – the information on where the passenger will go or which planes they will board.

Meanwhile, immigration police said that just going through the e-gates will not complete the immigration process.

"E-gate first checks the passport of the passenger. If the passport is correct, the first barrier is crossed. The face and eyes of the passport holder will be scanned before the next gate," Immigration Police Officer Azizur Rahman said.

"Passengers can pass the next gate if the passport photo and their faces match," he said.

On June 7, Group Captain Kamrul Islam, executive director of Shahjalal Airport, told The Daily Star that passengers with e-passports will be able to pass immigration through e-gate in only 18 seconds.