10 ms·

"Thomas Ormerod’s team of security officers faced a seemingly impossible task. At airports across Europe, they were asked to interview passengers on their histo

by piokoch 11y ago

"Thomas Ormerod’s team of security officers faced a seemingly impossible task. At airports across Europe, they were asked to interview passengers on their history and travel plans" It is so sad that nowdays it is not seen as absurdal that some kind of policeman is asking passangers about their travel plans. The journalist get excited that new methods of catching "cheating passangers" are beind developed. Apparently in the brave new World we have created this is considered normal.

JonnieCache 11y ago
Have border guards not always asked those questions? I'm pretty sure it's been like that since before the 20th century.
- splat 11y ago
  Border guards and passports as we conceive them didn't really exist until the 20th century. The historian Paul Fussell wrote in his book Abroad: "[B]efore 1915 His Majesty's Government did not require a passport for departure, nor did any European state require one for admittance except the two notoriously backward and neurotic countries of Russia and the Ottoman Empire." And it wasn't until 1945 that Americans were generally required to hold a passport to travel abroad during peacetime. [1] [1]: http://www.archives.gov/research/passport/index.html http://www.archives.gov/research/passport/index.html
  - JonnieCache 11y ago
    Thanks, I was vaguely aware that it was around the turn of the century that these things came in. An american in 1940 may not have needed a passport to leave, but would they have needed one to get in somewhere else? Surely the nations of europe at that time would have been suspicious of basically everyone?
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - rayiner 11y ago
    Maybe not passports, but border guards? Establishing the customs service was literally the fifth act of congress in 1789.
- hngiszmo 11y ago
  Apparently the brain-washing works well.
- coldtea 11y ago
  >Have border guards not always asked those questions? People used to laugh at the Iron Curtain countries for asking such questions... In the 60s you could board a plane without even passing any metal detector...
gambiting 11y ago
What do you mean nowadays? 20 years ago if you wanted to drive from Poland to Germany, the Policeman would spend no less than 20 minutes interviewing you and everyone in your car about every single detail of your journey. In some cases they would order you out so they could unpack all of your luggage and look around the car for any contraband. Nowadays? Nowadays you get in the car and drive through the border, passing the "Bundesrepublik Deutschland" sign at motorway speeds. For flying - I wave my national issued id at the agent, they don't even bother scanning it. No need to have a passport either. Years before the agent would carefully examine your passport and ask questions like - I see a stamp saying that you visited Russia 5 years ago, why? It really is easier to travel nowadays,but people will keep finding problems and saying how much better it was years ago - it really wasn't.
- abawany 11y ago
  Certainly your experience of a journey from communist Poland to Germany was full of Brave New World experiences. Now that that regime is gone, your travel is easier. The GP is pointing out that the rest of the world appears to be adopting the tactics that you encountered 20 years ago. Traveling to the US or Israel, for example.
  - jwr 11y ago
    Or traveling to the US, for that matter. I still don't understand why border guards ask incoming US citizens where they are going and what is the purpose of their travel.
    - rorykoehler 11y ago
      I like to take things as I go (at least when planning seems like overkill, e.g. for non-critical things). This caught me by surprise the last time I flew into NYC from Europe. I had intended to get into the city and then call a friend I was staying with to meet up and go to their place from there. Naturally I didn't get the address before hand. They wouldn't let me into the country without an address on my dis-embarkment card. I had no signal so I couldn't call or look one up either. Absolutely ridiculous. Any address as long as it wasn't a fake one that they would notice to be fake once they entered it in the system would do. What an exercise in futility. It's unlikely that someone who intended to do something seriously criminal would give the correct address, therefore it is just a big waste of time and resources.

by piokoch 11y ago

JonnieCache 11y ago

Have border guards not always asked those questions? I'm pretty sure it's been like that since before the 20th century.

splat 11y ago
Border guards and passports as we conceive them didn't really exist until the 20th century. The historian Paul Fussell wrote in his book Abroad: "[B]efore 1915 His Majesty's Government did not require a passport for departure, nor did any European state require one for admittance except the two notoriously backward and neurotic countries of Russia and the Ottoman Empire." And it wasn't until 1945 that Americans were generally required to hold a passport to travel abroad during peacetime. [1] [1]: http://www.archives.gov/research/passport/index.html http://www.archives.gov/research/passport/index.html
- JonnieCache 11y ago
  Thanks, I was vaguely aware that it was around the turn of the century that these things came in. An american in 1940 may not have needed a passport to leave, but would they have needed one to get in somewhere else? Surely the nations of europe at that time would have been suspicious of basically everyone?
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- rayiner 11y ago
  Maybe not passports, but border guards? Establishing the customs service was literally the fifth act of congress in 1789.
hngiszmo 11y ago
Apparently the brain-washing works well.
coldtea 11y ago
>Have border guards not always asked those questions? People used to laugh at the Iron Curtain countries for asking such questions... In the 60s you could board a plane without even passing any metal detector...

gambiting 11y ago

What do you mean nowadays? 20 years ago if you wanted to drive from Poland to Germany, the Policeman would spend no less than 20 minutes interviewing you and everyone in your car about every single detail of your journey. In some cases they would order you out so they could unpack all of your luggage and look around the car for any contraband. Nowadays? Nowadays you get in the car and drive through the border, passing the "Bundesrepublik Deutschland" sign at motorway speeds. For flying - I wave my national issued id at the agent, they don't even bother scanning it. No need to have a passport either. Years before the agent would carefully examine your passport and ask questions like - I see a stamp saying that you visited Russia 5 years ago, why? It really is easier to travel nowadays,but people will keep finding problems and saying how much better it was years ago - it really wasn't.

abawany 11y ago
Certainly your experience of a journey from communist Poland to Germany was full of Brave New World experiences. Now that that regime is gone, your travel is easier. The GP is pointing out that the rest of the world appears to be adopting the tactics that you encountered 20 years ago. Traveling to the US or Israel, for example.
- jwr 11y ago
  Or traveling to the US, for that matter. I still don't understand why border guards ask incoming US citizens where they are going and what is the purpose of their travel.
  - rorykoehler 11y ago
    I like to take things as I go (at least when planning seems like overkill, e.g. for non-critical things). This caught me by surprise the last time I flew into NYC from Europe. I had intended to get into the city and then call a friend I was staying with to meet up and go to their place from there. Naturally I didn't get the address before hand. They wouldn't let me into the country without an address on my dis-embarkment card. I had no signal so I couldn't call or look one up either. Absolutely ridiculous. Any address as long as it wasn't a fake one that they would notice to be fake once they entered it in the system would do. What an exercise in futility. It's unlikely that someone who intended to do something seriously criminal would give the correct address, therefore it is just a big waste of time and resources.