Kuwait threatens to freeze all services for those with unregistered biometrics

The government of Kuwait has again warned that citizens and expatriates who fail to register their fingerprint biometrics by December 31 will be unable to access all essential services.

The latest warning posted on the Interior Ministry’s Facebook account states that non-compliant persons will have banking and government services cut off for them.

“A biometric fingerprinting appointment must be booked before the specified deadline via the ‘Meta’ platform or ‘Sahl’ to avoid the suspension of government services and banking transactions,” the warning reads.

The government has been warning of halting services for unregistered folks since September.

Kuwait launched the compulsory fingerprint registration exercise in March, with the government saying the move is to a build a national database that will help in strengthening national security and streamline access to public services.

The deadline for nation was September 30, and those who had not submitted their biometrics by that deadline have faced some challenges in accessing banking and other public sector services. The recent warning from the Interior Ministry suggests many more services will be unreachable for those who do not comply with the government directive.

Around 2.5 million citizens had completed the biometric registration as of September, while as of October, 470,900 expats had been registered. Just over 20,000 citizens are yet to submit their biometrics going by figures mentioned by authorities recently.

Last month, the Director of the Criminal Evidence Department’s General Department of Personnel Identification, Brigadier Nayef Al-Mutairi, addressed lingering fears of data and rights violations regarding the fingerprinting process, saying appropriate measures have been taken to safeguard the data collected and to protect people’s privacy rights.

Article Topics

biometric database  |  biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  fingerprint biometrics  |  Kuwait