Biometrics for Non-profit Organizations

Biometrics is considered as a digital innovation to improve people’s lives and make a significant social and economic change. One of the best examples is that biometrics is used as an effective tool to help non-profit organizations secure the access of needed people to aid and protection.

In early 2013, United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has initially tested the new biometric system which stores the fingerprint, iris data and facial recognition for the refugees in the Malawi Camp. During the pilot program, which lasted four weeks, more than 17,000 people enrolled their biometric data and had their identities verified. After the successful pilot in Malawi, Thailand was recently chosen to be the first site of the global roll-out. After 5 months, in June 2015, UNHCR has completed its registration for nearly 110,000 Myanmar refugees in Thailand’s border camps with the help of the new biometrics identity management system (BIMS). They were very delighted because many of them lost their identity documents during the flight, which could cause many problems later as well as restrict their access to aid and protection.

Biometrics system project for non-profit organizations UNHCR

IriTech is proud to be part of such a meaningful project. Among many iris recognition products around the world, IriTech’s camera is the only iris scanner to be selected by UNHCR after a competitive bidding. In particular, IriTech’s IriMagic ^TM 1200 BK, a binocular iris camera with goggle, was chosen to identify the refugees for all ages. After a successful pilot in Malawi, UNCHR has posted a tender for our IriMagic ^TM 1200 BK to supply for other camps in other countries. UHCR plans to register the estimated 30 million refugees around the world.

In fact, our IriMagic product gained worldwide fame before that. Being one of the cameras receiving the STQC certification for UIDAI project, our IriMagic scanner was seen in many popular channels. Besides, it also appeared in a highly rated Hollywood movie “I Origins” coming out in 2014.

Biometrics Innovation for Refugees in Thailand