First Libyan biometric passport to be issued by the end of the month

If all stakeholders stick to their agreed-upon timelines, Libya’s first biometric passport should be issued by the end of July.

That’s the message from Germany-based Bundesdruckerei GmbH, the contractor tasked with printing Libya’s new biometric passport.

As we reported previously in BiometricUpdate.com, the Libyan government officially unveiled the country’s new biometric passport, along with the completion of the national identity number system early this year.

The country’s new biometric passport is blue and features a gold crescent and star on the front. Under Muammar Qaddafi, the passport was green.

Reported in the Libya Herald, the country has yet to draft a post-Qaddafi constitution and as such, the country’s official name has yet to be decided. Currently, the new passports say Libya on the front, though they could be changed to Republic, Kingdom or State of Libya down the road.

Biometric passports are gaining a lot of traction around the world. According to a recent Steria survey, more than half of Europeans support biometric systems for ID documents or ePassports.

Also, in China, the government’s ePassport objective has been a major driver for the broad biometrics market as a whole. 

Article Topics

biometric passport  |  Bundesdruckerei GmbH  |  epassport  |  ID  |  immigration  |  Libya  |  travel and tourism