Form filling at the Airport will be slashed while authorities will be better able to keep out undesirables when a new passenger monitoring system goes live in December.

Yesterday MPs passed an act allowing passenger lists to be e-mailed to Bermuda once a plane or boat begins its journey here.

Labour and Immigration Minister Derrick Burgess said it would give Customs, Police and Immigration more time to prepare to deal with people on the high risk list, stop list or look out list.

And he said the mailed lists would help to speed the processing of inbound and outward bound passengers.

From December, returning Bermudians will not have to fill in an arrival cards while no one will have to fill out a departure card however non-Bermudians will still have to fill in an arrival card.

Under international law the change required a special act which prompted yesterday's passing of the Bermuda Immigration and Protection Amendment Act (No. 2) 2007.

Mr. Burgess said the confidentiality of the information, obtained by swiping a passport, would be kept by Immigration.

He said: "Currently employers from time to time call Immigration and ask whether a staff member who's called in sick has left the Island. We don't release that information, neither will we in future."

He said all information acquired by Immigration was kept confidential.

This brought a stinging rebuke from Trevor Moniz who reminded Mr. Burgess that he had read out to the Island's media a letter Mr. Moniz had sent in confidence to Immigration complaining about someone who the thought was a guest worker who had overtaken him in a haphazard manner and then made obscene gestures and mouthed foul words.

He said Mr. Burgess was setting standards but not living up to them which was hypocritical.

And he said his lawyer's office had come across examples of where Immigration had arbitrarily taken documents off people without any authority, however, the pair rowed about whether Mr. Moniz had actually reported this problem to Immigration.

The bill was passed without objection.