AIRPORT OPERATING NORMALLY
"Biomig for Foreigners", the innovative tool of Migration Colombia to streamline migration control
- It is a technological development for facial biometric recognition designed for foreign tourists leaving the country.
- It benefits international travelers over 18 years of age who visit Colombia for tourism or short-stay activities.
- It will start operations at El Dorado International Airport.
Bogotá, June 2, 2023.
An innovative face biometric recognition tool that speeds up the migration process at the departure of foreigners visiting the country, was presented today by the general director of Migration Colombia, Fernando García Manosalva, accompanied by the Opain manager, Natalí Leal, and ANI’s Vice President of Contractual Management, Carolina Barbanti.
The new development is called Biomig for Foreigners and will benefit international travelers over 18 years of age, who visit Colombia for tourism or short-stay activities. What is best is that it does not require any previous biometric registration to be used.
"This new technological tool is an important advance in the modernization, security, efficiency and comfort of immigration control processes for our international tourists," said the general director of Migration Colombia. The official explained that this innovation is an important step to meet the growing demand of foreign tourists, which is proposed as one of the bets of the recently approved National Development Plan Colombia, a world power of life.
Likewise, he stressed that "Biomig for Foreigners places Colombia at the forefront in the region, being the only Latin American country to implement this technology in its migratory processes, which can potentially benefit the nearly 450 thousand travelers from other countries who visit Colombia during high seasons."
OPAIN, the current concessionaire of El Dorado Airport To make this project possible, and the National Infrastructure Agency (ANI) articulated their efforts, assigning the corridors where the machines are placed.
According to the Opain’s general manager, Natalí Leal, "We are committed to offering the best experience to our passengers and contributing to the growth of tourism; we will continue to invest in cutting-edge technology and develop collaborative projects with the airport community and the authorities to improve our services and continue positioning El Dorado as a benchmark in the region"
On her part, ANI’s Vice President of Contractual Management, Carolina Barbanti stressed that "ANI, through its operational audit, monitored the installation of Biomig, in line with the Government of Change committed to tourism in the country. For that reason, our concessionaire Opain installed five aisles for the face biometrics system with which we hope to reduce the waiting time, in this case, of foreign travelers. El Dorado today is synonymous with sustainability and an example for Colombia and the entire region. With the airports we bring Colombia closer."
Five machines, three steps
Biomig for foreigners consists of five machines (migratory corridors) located in the migration area of El Dorado International Airport. In them, and in just three steps, international travelers can quickly and efficiently complete their immigration control as follows:
- Locate the passport in the document reading machine to validate and confirm your biographical data.
- Enter the flight number.
- Stand in front of the camera for the machine to perform facial biometric recognition.
Once this process is done, the doors will open and the traveler can quickly go to their departure gate.
Biometric registration is automatically activated at check-in, by validating the face of passengers and presenting their passport or visa. It is not necessary to carry out additional procedures to use this system. "Biomig for Foreigners joins the Biomig that we have already been offering for Colombians with the same purpose: to streamline and make the immigration control process more efficient," recalled Fernando García.
El Dorado Airport, just the beginning
Initially, the facial biometric recognition service is offered at El Dorado International Airport. However, Migración Colombia plans to extend it to the José María Córdova international airports in Medellín; Rafael Núñez, from Cartagena; and Ernesto Cortissoz, from Barranquilla.
High technology at the service of travelers
Thanks to the technological development carried out by professionals of Migration Colombia, Biomig for foreigners allows to collect biometric data through facial recognition, which facilitates the authentication of foreign citizens in the migratory corridors and thus, reduce their time to complete the procedures of departure from the country.
This technological innovation makes it possible to identify the traveler by comparing 400 points of the iris of his eyes, 26 facial points and 10 fingerprint points. With this information, the migration authority can verify the identity of the person, if they have administrative or judicial requirements and the storage of their immigration records.
Prior to its official presentation, Biomig for Foreigners successfully passed the tests carried out during the last month at El Dorado Airport, with departures of 400 and up to 500 foreign travelers daily.
The new tool is expected to have a good acceptance and a better experience for international travelers during the migration control, taking into account that around 450,000 foreign travelers visit Colombia during high seasons.
Migration Colombia remains committed to the implementation of advanced technologies to facilitate and improve migration processes and generate a better experience for travelers visiting the country.
For more information:
Juan Pablo Machado
Cell: 3112236970
Sandra Lucía Sandoval – Head of Internal Communications and Airport Relations at OPAIN.
