It’s almost impossible to think of one irritating aspect of travel, oh wait, just thought of two – persistent street vendors and the outgoing passenger cards.
Thankfully one of these things is exiting the industry stage left and no, it’s not the vendors.
A representative from The Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) told news.com.au that the Outgoing Passenger Card (OPC) along with the orange Incoming Passenger Card have become obsolete and will eventually be phased out.
And the good news is that from 1 July they will be no more, according to a statement from Australia’s Minister of Immigration and Border Protection, Peter Dutton.
“Removing paper-based manual processes is integral to achieving a seamless and automated traveller experience.”
The Department of Immigration and Border Protection
The representative continued, saying that the department recognises the importance of the information collected on paper-based cards and is hoping to introduce an alternative means of gathering the same data.
“DIBP has worked closely with the Australian Bureau of Statistics to identify and successfully test alternate data sources instead of relying on manual collection by paper-based cards,” the representative added.
“The Government is focused on low contact automated border clearance processes and technologies to manage the 50 million travellers expected annually by 2020.”