Digital ID systems fail migrants due to policy gaps, Caribou finds

A new report by research organization Caribou has warned that digital ID systems around the world have continued to deepen and exacerbate the very exclusionary tendencies they were designed to address.

The report, which is titled Digital Identity and Migration: Struggles for Equitable Technology Governance, is premised on years of fieldwork conducted in Kenya and Germany under Caribou’s “Identity in the age of migration” project.

It makes a thorough assessment of the discriminatory and biased manner in which biometric digital ID systems are being deployed, and warns that the global digital identity revolution is headed in the wrong direction if adequate corrective measures are not taken as a matter of urgency.

In Kenya and Germany, the research highlights cases of documented migrants trapped in bureaucratic cycles that the digital systems in place do little to break. In Germany, for instance, one asylum seeker recounted receiving an ID document stating their nationality was “unclear” despite providing extensive proof of Syrian origin.

It’s the same scenario in Kenya where refugees are reported to be routinely shut out of the country’s digital public infrastructure (DPI), including mobile money services, due to SIM card registration issues or exclusion from the national health database. Kenya has faced severe criticisms over issues of exclusion, human rights and privacy related to its successive digital ID projects.

To the researchers, the lingering issue of digital ID exclusion for migrants and other forcibly displaced persons is more of a fundamentally political problem that one of technology. This point is substantiated by a look into three different digital ID cases that deploy one kind of technology, but with totally different political agenda.

The report looks at the EU digital ID wallet which excludes non-EU migrants by design, the proposed BritCard in the UK which is partly farmed as a tool to fight illegal immigration, as well as Red Cross’s DIGID initiative in Kenya, a blockchain-based wallet for refugees without official IDs, which showed genuine promise for inclusion, but ultimately failed to scale beyond its pilots partly due to lack of funding.

In order to fix the problems and make digital public infrastructure systems better serve migrants and other vulnerable persons in society such as the elderly and those with physical disabilities, the report calls for political reforms which cannot be substituted even by the most cutting-edge technological solutions.

“Technological solutionism cannot substitute for political reform. Centering the experiences of the most marginalized is not only a matter of justice but a strategic approach to building systems that work for everyone,” a part of the report reads.

Some of the actionable principles for policymakers which the report suggests include aligning digital ID with policies that can facilitate access to a broad range of services like banking and healthcare; adopt risk-proportionate standards which means not requiring maximum security verification for low-risk services where vulnerable users are excluded; embed privacy by design into systems; put in place the right connectivity infrastructure to guarantee basic digital access for everyone; and design inclusive access methods.

Other measures include creating digital ID interfaces that are usable across literacy levels, languages, and cultural contexts; establish participatory governance; invest in capacity building by provide digital literacy support; train staff to work effectively with diverse populations; and put in place appropriate mechanisms to ensure accountability and oversight in the way those systems run.

Last year, Caribou, in a brief, called on countries to first address the legal and institutional causes of statelessness before they can begin to think of having inclusive digital identity systems.

IOM efforts to close gaps

Meanwhile, during a legal identity conference last month in Ankara, Türkiye, stakeholders explored ways of closing existing gaps with regard to global digital identity access.

Convened by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the conference, which is part of the COMPASS program, rallied government representatives, international organizations, the private sector and academia.

This conference comes at a critical moment as governments transition toward digital identity systems, especially in Africa and the Middle East,” Nelson Goncalves, IOM Head of Legal Identity Unit, said. “We see strong interest in learning and exchanging experiences to ensure these systems are inclusive, secure, and benefit the most vulnerable.”

Article Topics

Caribou  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  digital inclusion  |  digital public infrastructure  |  legal identity