Aid organisations using technology to help Syrian refugees in the Middle East
The first priority for a Syrian arriving in a host country is registration in the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) ProGres database. Until registered, they are not officially a refugee, thus not entitled to protection or eligible for aid. Rather than using photos and fingerprints to verify a refugee’s identity, UNHCR has started to use iris scanning as verification. According to IrisGuard, the technology provider, 1.6 million Syrian refugees in the region have been registered in this way.
Registration creates a global digital record for every refugee. The operation has been speeded up by using barcode scanners to scan each refugee’s Syrian ID card. In this picture, A Syrian girl poses for an iris scan at the Zaatari camp in Jordan.