According to the recent Migration Outlook Report 2024 by the ICMPD: The world has entered a period of increasing volatility, characterised by systemic rivalry between the world’s great powers, a polymodal international order, greater state fragility, an increasing number of violent conflicts, rising terrorism, the weaponisation of energy and food insecurity.
It also says that: The number of armed conflicts has almost doubled over the last decade, correlating to a doubling of the number of forcibly displaced persons, both internally and across borders. Their number reached 114 million in 2023, the highest since the beginning of the century.
Whilst it’s not just conflict that drives migration; natural disasters, economic and educational opportunities also play a key part, conflict remains the primary factor. And with no resolution of the many ongoing conflicts in sight, the prospect for a decrease in irregular migration numbers remains small.
None of this is news to anyone that watches the television, let alone to those of us directly or indirectly involved in the wider border security community.
But what has changed since the first wave of the current migration crisis back in 2015 when Angela Merkel famously welcomed over a million asylum seekers into Germany, is a hardening of attitudes to irregular migration and a growing desire by the public to see their governments exert far greater control of irregular migrants crossing their borders illegally.
And that’s a difficult job. Because border agencies are immediately faced with the usual conflicting aims of ‘facilitating the free flow of goods and people’, whilst increasing their ability to stop illegal migrants crossing their border.
Whilst the largest numbers of illegal border crossings on the US/Mexico border are made on foot, and in Europe are made by boat via the Mediterranean. Thousands more are making the dangerous journey, hidden in the backs of cars, vans and trucks, and sometimes with tragic results, as we saw back in 2019, when the 39 Vietnamese migrants were found suffocated in the back of a refrigerated truck in the UK.
So, how do you check thousands of trucks and other vehicles for clandestines whilst minimising delays to the flow traffic, and of course, do it safely?
Physically searching vehicles is simply out of the question because it takes too long and requires too many trained search officers to be practically and financially feasible.
This is one of those areas where technology is crucial, and in this article, we will look at some of the main human presence detection systems currently available, as well as some of the new tech on the block.
Human Presence Detection Systems is a term that covers a range of technologies but probably the technology most associated with the term, are the so called ‘Heartbeat’ detectors.
These systems have been around for a couple of decades now and are well established both on borders and in prisons. They work by using geophone sensors, like those used to measure earthquakes, to measure the tiniest movements or vibrations, both voluntary (body movement) and in-voluntary (heartbeat) transmitted through the vehicles body and suspension system. An important factor is that, because these systems only measure sound and vibration, they are intrinsically safe for the user and the clandestine alike.
In operation, once the driver and legitimate passengers have vacated the vehicle, operators attach at least two magnetic sensors to the vehicle. This is important because, as I understand it, a single sensor will not be able to eliminate the background noise you will expect in a normal busy working environment such as a port, and this will result in an unacceptable number of false positives. Some systems also include ground sensors, again these are to eliminate the problem of background noise.
There are several manufacturers of these systems on the market and some of the most active of these include, US company Geovox with their Avian system and Mira Technologies based in Vienna. Mira’s system, Magus HBD is driven by AI, the system can be integrated in a national network or can be used as a stand-alone. They report that they are currently preparing research to develop a system which is not only wireless but also contactless, meaning no sensors have to be placed manually on the inspected vehicles.
Another manufacturer, ClanTect, that came out of the Institute of Sound & Vibration Research in the UK, has gone a stage further in their efforts to eliminate the problem of false positives generated by environmental noise and vibration. In addition to including ground sensors, ClanTect have also developed a proprietary wind-frame for their mobile wireless version, which is able to effectively ‘block’ out the vibration resulting from wind excitation, thereby enabling accurate searches to continue, even on busy roadside locations. They have also developed a wireless multi-vehicle scanning version and ‘ClanConnect’ connecting a network of remote terminals, with the head office host system. This provides for the rapid and tamper-free two-way transmission of data, system updates and programs.
Another US company, ENSCO produce the MicroSearch Human Presence Detection System (HPDS). They have gone on to develop the MicroSearch Contactless Vehicle Sensor (CVS) System, a new technology that builds off the current MicroSearch (HPDS). The new option allows the current vehicle sensors that are magnetically attached to the vehicle to be replaced with vehicle sensors that do not require any contact with the vehicle at all. The sensors themselves can be housed in a protective speed bump to allow for mobility and movement, or can be permanently installed, recessed below pavement grade, and covered with anything that will protect the sensor from damage but still provides direct access to the sensor. This new technology eliminates the requirement for an officer to attach a sensor to the side or undercarriage of the vehicle being inspected, improves officer safety, and eliminates the requirement for direct access to and contact with the vehicle.
Thomas Plutt Director, MicroSearch Systems said, “This innovative proprietary technology enables state of the art human presence detection without any physical contact with the vehicle.’
Moving away from sound and vibration technology, another US company, Decision Sciences International Corporation (DSIC) recently announced a breakthrough in passive human detection capability for their product Discovery®
DSIC has developed a ground-breaking Non-Intrusive Inspection (NII) capability based on Charged Particle (Muon) Tomography technology, capable of detecting contraband and anomalies such as drugs, weapons, chemicals, unshielded and shielded radiological and nuclear materials, even inside bulk truck cargoes and containers, penetrating cover loads such as ice and water, salts, gravel and aggregate, steel and lead.
Now, in response to customer requirements, Decision Sciences has developed a new algorithm to safely detect human beings hidden inside containers and cargoes. As Kevin Davies, DSIC’s Chief Commercial Officer stated: “DSIC’s passive Discovery® system does not generate any harmful radiation like x-ray, and is intrinsically safe for the user, the cargo, and any human beings that may be hidden in the cargo. This is a real game-changer in the fight against human trafficking globally.”
Our last technology choice is X-Ray backscatter. Unlike potentially harmful X-ray’s, which rely on the transmission of X-rays through the object, backscatter X-ray detects the radiation that reflects from the object and forms an image.
This technology is utilized in the unival MBX mobile x-ray backscatter van which can image cars, trucks and people. X-Ray backscatter technology is highly sensitive to organic materials such as drugs, explosives, cash, and of course humans. Since the unival MBX does not have a tunnel to restrict scanned objects, it can scan any sized object including passenger vehicles, trucks and ULD containers. unival quote: that with its unique NanoDose technology, unival MBX delivers high performance while maintaining the lowest X-Ray dose of any cargo or vehicle inspection scanner.
These systems are particularly suitable tool for managing high-throughput environments, because they can be driven up and down a queue of vehicles or even be used in mobile roadside vehicle checkpoints to scan moving traffic.
Of course, these backscatter systems do not have the penetrating power of their big brothers, the Non-Intrusive Inspection (NII) X-Ray scanners, so are more suited to scanning cars, vans and soft skinned trucks. But they are incredibly fast, mobile and versatile.
Whilst the none of these technologies on their own represent a technological ‘silver bullet’, together they should part of a multi-layered security approach that will help in tackling illegal migration and the scourge of human trafficking.