The pilot for the government strategy to 'export' the UK's borders will track passengers from 10 international routes by April.

As part of the Semaphore project, IBM is developing a trial system for the government's eBorders programme, which includes plans to link government agencies with travel operators and transport terminals. The system will log, cross-check and authorise passengers travelling into the UK at their point of departure.

The routes selected for the trial are Dubai, Miami, Bangkok, Washington, Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Ottawa, Riyadh and Johannesburg, Computing can reveal.

The Home Office said it can't reveal the specific routes for security reasons but confirmed the number of routes involved.

'The routes were chosen on the basis of risk assessments by the border agencies including the immigration service, Customs & Excise and the police,' said a spokeswoman.

The authority-to-carry element of eBorders will not be part of the Semaphore trial but passengers on the selected routes will be logged as they enter and leave the country, according to the Home Office.

The project's operations centre is due to go live at the end of December and be fully functioning by April.

IBM's successful bid for the three-year Semaphore deal, announced by the government last week, was revealed by Computing last month.