LONDON, Jan 14: The British government announced here on Monday that it had completed enforcement of a plan to check fingerprints of all visa applicants.

The government has also launched a 10-step plan for the largest shake-up to Britain’s border security and immigration system in 40 years.

Anyone applying for a visa from 133 countries covering three quarters of the world’s population now has his fingerprints checked against UK databases.

Nearly 500 cases of identity swapping have been spotted already.

The UK had removed or deported more than 4,000 foreign national prisoners by the end of 2007.

Biometric fingerprints have been taken from more than one million people and 10,000 visa applicants have been identified who have previously been fingerprinted in the UK in connection with immigration cases or asylum applications.