IN Groupe wins award for France’s national eID, biometric passport deal for Seychelles

Two national ID events round off a busy 2021 for IN Groupe; an award for the new biometric ID card it collaborated on for its home country France, and a contract win to supply biometric passports to the Seychelles.

The jury of experts for the High Security Printing (HSP) EMEA awards, operated by Reconnaissance International, chose two joint winners for Best National ID Card: the new eID card developed by the French Ministry of the Interior, ANTS (Agence Nationale des Titres Sécurisés) and IN Groupe alongside the new German eID from the Bundesdruckerei and Bundeskriminalamt. The cards are part of the new generation of biometric identity documents in the EU and also serve as travel credentials within the bloc.

IN Groupe, a public limited company, won again for its collaboration with Monaco’s Département de l’Intérieur for the Monaco Residents Permit in the Best New ID of Travel Document category.

Other winners include the HID Global and Estonian Police and Border Guard Board’s ePassport for EMEA, the Veridos/Bangladesh ePassport for Asia.

Best new national ID card in the Latin America region went to Idemia and Colombia’s National Vital Statistics Registry. In the same region, the best new ID or travel document was awarded to HID Global and the Argentine National Registry of People for Argentina’s Smart DNI.

Seychelles biometrics passports expected by end of 2022

The Seychelles Ministry for Internal Affairs has signed a deal with IN Groupe to produce its first biometric passports. The French firm has already been supplying passport booklets to the country for 15 years.

When it goes into use by the end of 2022, the new credential will grow from 32 to 48 pages, and last 10 years rather than five.

The country also hopes that the new documents will put it in a better position to negotiate visa waivers.

The principal secretary for the Department of Immigration and Civil Status, Alain Volcere, said that as Seychelles is a member of the International Organisation for Civil Aviation’s (ICAO) Public Key Directory, “when a foreign-passport holder goes through our system, we will know within the space of 10 seconds whether the passport has been tampered with, cloned or issued by the right authority.

“A biometric passport system will thus help us to elevate our security levels considering the prevalence of criminality in the world today, so it is important that we know the identities of persons coming in and for access control at the airport. Therefore, it is a significant step in border control management in Seychelles, and we will see its many fruits in the future.”

Article Topics

awards  |  biometric passport  |  biometrics  |  credentials  |  digital ID  |  e-ID  |  identity document  |  IN Groupe  |  national ID  |  Seychelles  |  travel documents