A Mission Impossible type stunt which involved a surgical procedure to switch fingerprints fooled some of the most advanced biometric immigration control procedures in the world, reports Japanese media.

In a development which has sent chills down the spines of immigration officials all over the world, it has been revealed that an illegal immigrant from China bypassed Japanese checks after “swopping” her fingerprints through plastic surgery in China.

According to reports, a Chinese national, Miss Lin Rong, paid £9,000 for a procedure which entailed removing the skin from the fingers of her hands and transplanting them so that left became right and vice versa.

In this way, when she was scanned at a Japanese airport, her prints did not match the left/right differentiation which was on record. Miss Rong had previously been deported from Japan for overstaying her visitor’s visa.

The deception was only spotted when she was arrested for engaging in a fake marriage in an attempt to stay in Japan. Apparently the arresting officers noticed her unusual hand scars and began an inquiry which revealed the tactic.

The security breach has revealed how desperate illegal immigrants can find ways round even biometric scans, which, experts say, will now have to be increased to retina scan level to avoid further such cases.

* Japan has an immigration policy which is one of the more sensible to found in the world today. It is ruthless in dealing with illegal immigrants and does not hesitate to deport, without compensation of any sort, immigrants who break Japanese law.

All foreigners in Japan, whether tourist or resident, are fingerprinted and photographed when they arrive and a strict check is kept on the length of their stay. Overstayers are systematically pursued, a process which is made easier by the high degree of homogeneity in Japan which means that foreigners literally stand out from the crowd.

This policy is in marked contrast to Britain. Here, lawbreakers are rewarded for breaking immigration laws by being granted “asylum” and given benefits, while the presence of their family in Britain is a guarantee of non-deportation because it will “deprive them of a family  life” under the Human Rights Act.

It is also important to note that it was the Conservative Party under John Major’s watch which abandoned the checks on who was leaving the country, which effectively opened the door to overstayers in Britain.