BEING fingerprinted when entering or leaving a country may make you feel like a criminal, but it is in the best interest of everyone's security. I was fingerprinted and photographed at JFK airport in New York. I knew that my biometrics would stay in that country's computer records for years, but the experience did not make me feel unwelcome. I could understand the complications: security is a trade-off. Now four years after its initial implementation in the United States, the fingerprinting system has come to the Kingdom. And it is working. The news last week highlighted an account of over 500 workers wanted on criminal charges who were arrested thanks to the efficient electronic fingerprinting system in the Makkah region. In the past, these criminals could have escaped detection, under the old system of mindless deportation of foreigners who overstay their visa. These people simply turn themselves in with no passport or ID and are deported without a security background check, and the criminals among them thus have an easy escape route. In order to maintain border security and to accelerate the identification of foreign violators, legitimate visitors and residents need to also undergo the burden of being fingerprinted. This, however, also helps to protect them from possible identity theft. Visa violators have engaged in all sorts of criminal activities including prostitution under the bridge and forging ID cards to be sold to the illegal foreign community. But there is more to this story than just fingerprinting. The problem of crime being imported into the Kingdom is aggravated by the huge influx of foreigners entering the country every day, including the illegal filtering of aliens across the southern border, thus increasing the scope of the criminal threat. Although there may be an ethical consideration for the plight of poor, illegal immigrants, we cannot provide a general amnesty to them as Spain did a few years ago. And even in our wildest dreams, we can never imagine that we can completely seal the borders of our country. Moreover, rounding up and deporting all the illegal immigrants would take forever, cost a fortune, and alienate large sections of the population. The problem is increasing every year with no solution in sight. Around 1.8 million workers legally entered the Kingdom last year alone. The chances of some of them being criminals are high and increasing every year as more workers keep coming. But under the current visa system, they will continue to arrive. What can we do about it? Fingerprinting is only one small step in the fight against imported crime. Security is only as strong as its weakest link; two locks on the front door do little good if the back door is open. Likewise, society is only as secure as the country's most insecure neighborhoods inhabited by extremely low-paid or even unemployed foreigners, who once they enter the country under the current sponsorship system, can remain here illegally for years. Although fingerprinting aims to detect the bad guys, when it is done here, it treats everybody as a suspect. The process should start before foreign workers arrive in the Kingdom and technology may now exist to make this possible. Potential recruited workers should go through a complete security background check before a visa is issued by a Saudi embassy abroad, with the Saudi government making arrangements with foreign countries to exchange database information on visitors. This should be considered a part of global security and should not be seen as an infringement on national sovereignty. And if fingerprinting at the embassies abroad which would require the full cooperation of the host country is not feasible, then at least a thorough security background check should be made before issuing a visa. As a start, authorities may want to prioritize security background checks on workers from countries seen as a higher risk of providing foreign criminals based on the available statistics of criminal activities in the Kingdom. It would require a lot of work and manpower, of course. But when a nation's security is involved, we have to balance the cost against the benefits. Large-scale fingerprinting in the Kingdom with the hope of detecting those with a known criminal record while useful does not do much to minimize criminal activity. People may still feel that they are being victimized. The country is facing an increase in the criminal activity of illegal immigrants and honest people should not get caught in the struggle between foreign policy and the demand for foreign labor. __
