The US's decision to fingerprint its visitors -- among other heightened security measures -- has been met with indignation by many Egyptian public figures. Yasmine El-Rashidi investigates In one of numerous global responses to heightened American security measures for visa-seekers and travellers to the US, Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni cancelled a US visit he had scheduled for 1 March. The minister had been meant to inaugurate an exhibit of his own paintings at Washington D.C's National Geographic Society. When he was forewarned by the exhibit's organisers that he would be subjected to "heightened security measures", Hosni decided -- "on principle" -- not to go. "I am not asking for special treatment," Hosni told Al-Ahram Weekly. "This is not personal. It's a matter of principle and courtesy. If I was a high-ranking official, I wouldn't object, but to subject a minister, from a country like this, to such measures, is an insult to the post. The issue is absolutely not personal, and entirely professional, in nature." The exhibit -- also scheduled to tour Rome and Basil, Switzerland -- was planned prior to 9/11, the catalyst for most of the current heightened US security concerns. "A Yemeni minister was put in a similar situation," Hosni said, referring to Yemeni Minister of State for Human Rights Wahiba Fare'. "When she got to the airport [in the US] and was told she would have to be searched by airport security, she got back on the plane and went home. She had been invited to the United States by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright," Hosni said. "This is offensive and insulting to the position of minister. One only asks for respect." The minister's stance prompted Samir Ragab, editor of the daily Al-Gomhuriya, to insinuate that he and other senior editors may choose not to accompany President Hosni Mubarak to Washington in April if they are to be subjected to fingerprinting. Although Ragab was not available for comment, other senior editors seemed unperturbed by the issue. "I was unaware of the minister's decision," Al- Musawwar magazine Editor Makram Mohamed Ahmed told the Weekly. "What should probably be addressed is whether or not he was properly informed of the security procedures he would be facing. As an editor, I have no problem with the digital scanning procedure. From what I understand, it takes a few minutes, and will ease US travel for us." Addressing the negative connotations of "fingerprinting" which seem to be driving the issue, US Embassy press officer, Phillip Frayne, told the Weekly that, "to begin, the process is not what people imagine. It's not 'fingerprinting' but digital scanning. It involves placing your fingertips momentarily on top of a digital scanner." Frayne said the implementation of the procedure "depends on the type of visa". Type A visas -- granted to dignitaries and diplomats -- are exempt, as are type G -- those granted to United Nations officers. "Talk of fingerprinting ministers is incorrect," Frayne said. The digitised procedure is part of "US-VISIT" (United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology) -- an automated entry/exit system. Most visitors travelling on visas will be required, upon entry to US air and seaports, to have a digital photograph taken of them by officials, as well as two fingerprints scanned by an inkless device. These procedures are in addition to similar ones that must also take place before the visa is granted in their home country. The fact that the measure does not apply to citizens of 27 -- mainly European -- nations who do not need US visas, has only served to fuel the global fury. Brazil, for one, has retaliated in kind, with US visitors now being fingerprinted and photographed. The decision was based on a judicial order, after a Brazilian government citizen's rights agency filed a complaint over the US measure in a Brazilian court. News agencies reported the Brazilian judge, Sebastio da Silva, as having written in his court order, "I consider the act absolutely brutal, threatening human rights, violating human dignity, xenophobic and worthy of the worst horrors committed by the Nazis." In Poland there is similar outrage, with people infuriated about the US visa requirements imposed on them despite the fact that Polish troops are fighting alongside the US in Iraq. Some nations have also responded by increasing visa application fees for US visitors -- as the United States has itself done with its visas. Tourism to the US has gone down in the wake of the altered way America has viewed and treated its foreign visitors since 9/11. Studies have also shown that the number of international students and scholars visiting the country has also decreased. Observers predicted that the increasing backlash to the new security measures is only likely to heighten that trend. Additional reporting Nevine El-Aref
