SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 27: The new system of the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) — which puts the visitors from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen on a list of Special Registration category— is not a drastic one.

Jorge Martinez, the spokesman for the US Department of Justice, said the INS — which has come under the jurisdiction of the Justice Department — was executing a law mandated by the Congress in 1996, and it was this law that required them to implement an entry-exit system by 2005. This law subjected all nationals of all countries to stricter scrutiny at the borders, said Martinez.

“Currently, all passport holders of Libya, Syria, Sudan, Iran and Iraq are required to be registered under this system. However, no other countries, including Saudi Arabia, will be required to have all of their nationals, who visit the US, registered. But every country will see some of its citizens registered.”

He explained that individuals would be registered under this system based on the ever-changing intelligence about the current terrorist threats to the United States. “Any national of any other country who enters the US - other than these five countries - may be registered under this system depending on current intelligent information.”

A memo, sent last week to immigration inspectors by the INS, requires that men between 16 to 45 from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen be registered from Oct 1.