Nusa Dua, Bali (ANTARA News) - The International Polices (Interpols) General Assembly has agreed to expand the I-Checkit program for maritime industry in an attempt to improve border security and passengers surveillance.

"As many as 190 Interpol member countries have agreed on a resolution to expand the I-Checkit program for screening of passengers in the maritime sector," a spokesman of the Indonesian Police, Senior Commissioner Martinus Sitompul, said here on Thursday.

In the first stage, Interpol has involved an American-British cruise company, Carnival Corporation, in carrying out a three-month trial of the program. The trial will be conducted from August to October in case of four Princess Cruise ships.

Martinus revealed that travel documents of 34,000 passengers were screened using an Interpol system that contained Stolen and Lost Travel Document (SLTD) database.

If the trial run turned out to be successful, it would define the systems role in strengthening security in the global shipping industry.

"Carnival Corporation would be attached to the I-Checkit system for international passengers check-in process, and will allow screening of travel documents from SLTD Interpol database. This database has more than 169 million data files from 175 countries," he stated.

The I-Checkit system application by Carnival Corporation would be expanded gradually to 10 shipping lines in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.

He noted the I-Checkit system application was formulated in accordance with Interpol terms regarding data processing. Since 2015, the AirAsia airline has been running the system as a pilot project.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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