UNHCR to seek provider for BIMS lightweight fingerprint and iris scanners

Biometrics firms should be aware of a forthcoming procurement opportunity with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which is looking to deploy new fingerprint and iris scanners for its Biometric Identity Management System (BIMS).

The UN began developing BIMS in 2013, with initial testing done in Malawi. The system officially rolled out in 2015 utilizing technology from Accenture to register and verify the identities of refugees and displaced persons around the world. A blog from UNHCR says that over BIMS’ existence, requirements have evolved and the time has come to procure a lighter weight scanning device. Scanners currently in use are bulky and present logistical challenges.

“By making the application mobile-friendly and compatible with smartphones and tablets,” says UNHCR, “we can significantly improve the user experience” for refugees. The organization also plans to introduce self-service biometric kiosks for identity verification, for which lighter and more portable biometric scanning hardware is essential.

A Request for Information (RFI) that UNHCR issued in late 2023 surveyed available biometric scanning devices on the market, and subsequent tests were done to assess suitability. The blog says “scanner testing was done by completing a desk review and collecting sample products from several hardware vendors, evaluating them against specific criteria, and finally selecting some products that scored well against UNHCR’s needs. The type of sample products ranged from iris and fingerprint scanners to embedded all-in-one devices.”

Devices were evaluated on portability (size and weight), capture speed, image quality, built-in validation features, ease of software integration with BIMS, and overall user experience. Given the need to deploy outdoors in remote and challenging environments, performance in harsh conditions was a key metric, with particular focus on heat and dust resistance, exposure to bright sunlight, battery life of mobile deployments, and “effectiveness of fake finger detection for unattended standalone kiosks to prevent fraud attempts.”

Having completed the tests, UNHCR is preparing to proceed with a competitive invitation to bid (ITB) process to select a provider or providers for the standardized models. As it proceeds, it continues to develop a BIMS mobile app for Android, and to “conceptualize” its standalone self-serve biometric kiosks. “Once the software and the procurement activity for biometric scanners converge,” says the agency, “they will pave the way for the next generation of BIMS solutions.”

Per a blog from 2023, UNHCR’s biometric tools “are now considered an integral component of registration data in more than 90 UNHCR country operations globally.” That year, BIMS started operating in Chile and Panama, where biometric enrolment is primarily used in an administrative capacity, “to establish unique registered identities, improve operational capacities and data integrity, enhance the identification of individuals and prevent misrepresentation.”

Earlier this year, BIMS was used in its “Forcibly Returned Afghans Enrollment (FARE)” cash-support program in Afghanistan, a biometric initiative that provided financial support to 39,000 Afghan refugees turned away from neighboring countries for lack of documentation.

Article Topics

Biometric Identity Management System (BIMS)  |  biometrics  |  fingerprint biometrics  |  iris recognition  |  UNHCR