The UK Home Office has introduced strict new security measures at UK borders.

The Home Office has announced the introduction of new high-tech ‘e-Borders’ that will count every visitor in and out of the country by 2014 in an effort to strengthen Britain’s security – at a cost of £1.2 billion.

More than 50 million passengers have already been screened through the new e-Borders system – of which 2,000 were arrested for crimes including sex offences and murder – and this month new technology will be piloted at Manchester Airport which promises to speed up queues at immigration control and more effectively screen travellers.

Jacqui Smith, Home Secretary, explained the new system: “The UK has one of the toughest borders in the world and we are determined to ensure that it stays that way. Our hi-tech electronic borders system will allow us to count all foreign nationals in and out of the UK, while checking them against watch-lists.

“These checks make up just one part of Britain’s triple ring of security, alongside fingerprint visas for three quarters of the world’s population, and the roll-out of ID cards for foreign nationals locking people to one identity.”

Fingerprint visas check, and record, people’s identity against UK government databases and have already proved successful – so far this year more than 3,100 identity ‘swappers’ have been identified and almost 20,000 matches have been made with people who have previous immigration histories.

The new e-Border system also carries out checks on passengers once they have checked in for their journey to the UK, but before they land, and has so far led to 1,700 arrests on arrival in the country.

More plans are in the pipeline to further strengthen the UK’s border controls, including stricter visa requirements for countries with weak passport security measures. Eleven countries have already been informed that they will have to meet stricter visa requirements if they fail to introduce more security.

The Home Office’s main aim is to track 99% of all foreign nationals in and out of Britain by 2010.