Chad issues biometric IDs to thousands of refugees with Idemia tech, UNHCR’s help

Refugees in Chad can now apply for a legal identity to bring them an important step closer to social and economic inclusion.

Chad’s government, the country’s National Commission for the Reception and Reintegration of Refugees (CNARR) and National Agency for Secure Documents (ANATS), the UNHCR and the World Bank are all partners in the ID document-issuance project.

CNARR and UNHCR have each issued ID documents to refugees in Chad in the past, but the UN refugee agency points out in a blog post that these credentials were sometimes not recognized as legitimate by local authorities, financial institutions or service providers. Without that recognition, refugees could find themselves unable to receive healthcare, open a bank account, or register a phone number.

In response, a World Bank-funded pilot project was launched to register refugees with the Integrated Population and Secure Documents Management System (SIGPTS).

A 2023 Digital Economy Diagnostic on Chad from the World Bank shows Idemia provided the technology behind the SIGPTS, which was used to enroll Chadians to the National Biometric Population Register and issue National Identification Numbers (NNIs).

The system launched in 2020 with the capability to deduplicate the biometrics against a database of 15 million people within 10 seconds, ChadInfos reported at the time, and also enabled the biometric registration of visitors to the country.

Now, the same system is being used to issue National Refugee Identification Numbers (NNIRs). Refugees receive the unique identifier after undergoing biometric verification. Having an NNIR improves access to basic services, while protecting service providers against fraud, according to the blog post.

UNHCR Chad Project Lead Mohamed Doumbia says refugees see the practical benefits of the IDs and are receiving the project with enthusiasm.

The pilot launched in the Chadian capital, N’Djamena, where more than 4,000 refugees had received IDs as of May 1. The plan is to reach 7,000 IDs issued in the area during the pilot phase.

Chad is facing influxes of refugees from Sudan, Central African Republic and Nigeria, and UNHCR hopes that over the upcoming expanded phases of the pilot it will be able to issue 25,000 IDs in total. Eventually, the project participants hope to issue ID documents to all refugees ages ten and above, in line with Chadian law.

Article Topics

Africa  |  biometrics  |  Chad  |  digital identity  |  IDEMIA  |  legal identity  |  national ID  |  refugee registration  |  UNHCR