Scraping Landing Cards

From the BBC:

“UK to scrap passenger landing cards”

All landing cards for international passengers arriving in the UK will be scrapped from Monday. Landing cards are currently filled in by passengers arriving in the UK by air or sea from outside the European Economic Area. Border Force director general Paul Lincoln, in a letter to staff, said it would "help meet the challenge of growing passenger numbers".  But unions warned it risked weakening immigration controls.  Around 16m landing cards are issued every year and they are used to record what is said to border staff on arrival as well as the reasons for travel and conditions of entry.  The Home Office had agreed to scrap them for seven countries, including the US and Australia, from June, but has now decided to go further.

'Only record'

Immigration Service Union general secretary, Lucy Moreton, accused the Home Office of "ignoring" warnings from experienced staff as to the longer-term impact of getting rid of landing cards. She said that the union had been assured that scrapping them would not happen until new technology was in place to record international arrivals. "Although in most cases landing cards are retained for purely statistical reasons they do contain the only record of what was said to an officer on arrival," she said. In his letter, Mr Lincoln said he recognised concerns about the scheme. But he added: "These changes will enable frontline officers to focus their skills and time on border security issues and on cohorts who present the greatest risk of immigration abuse."

^ I have filled-out many Landing Cards for the UK throughout the years. I remember flying from Munich to London and was not given a Landing Card on-board the plane as you are supposed to. The German airline claimed it was because the other passengers were EU citizens and so didn’t need a Landing Card, but I even received a Landing Card flying from Ireland to London (an EU country to an EU country) so it was clearly just the German airline trying to cover-up their mistake. I don’t think it is important to have Landing Cards or other migration-related cards anymore. I have had to fill them out in: the UK, Canada, the US, Russia, the Bahamas and Ukraine. In the second decade of the 21st Century, with everything now done electronically, it doesn’t seem necessary to fill out a piece of paper only to turn it to the immigration officer a few moments later. In Russia you have to fill out the Migration Form and keep it with you until you leave the country. In the United States foreigners fill out online forms (ESTA and Form I-94) and no longer do anything with paper. In the United States for US citizens returning to the US they have to go to an immigration kiosk, scan their passport, answer questions electronically, get their picture taken, print out a card and then stand in line to have everything checked by an immigration officer. That process is more time consuming then just answering the immigration officer’s questions as it used to be done. In today’s world the immigration forms should be done electronically so that nothing can be misplaced or lost. If you are coming by plane the airline should have a system in place where you can answer the questions on tablets and have everything printed out (or sent electronically) to the immigration officer of whatever country you are arriving to  - that way you don’t have to wait at an immigration kiosk and can just deal with the immigration officer in person. ^

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-48297695