Case Study 1 – Beyond Recognition
Handle exceptions with ease. See how foreign workers returning on different visas and names were able to be identified pre-immigration.
In one of the first large scale deployments of Iris recognition technology, the government of the UAE utilised Iris recognition in 2001 to protect its borders. They needed to identify foreign workers who had been expelled from the Emirates and reject future entry. Expulsion was usually due to workers committing some sort of crime.
The Problem
The challenge for the UAE was that many of these workers returned to the Emirates with a different name and a new set of identification documents.
The Solution
The Emirates enrolled every person expelled from the country in an iris database, utilising IrisID technology.
This meant that any worker arriving in the country had to be checked through the Iris system. If the Iris system could not identify the worker, that worker was allowed into the country. If the worker was identified (the system would return the identification used at enrolment which was never the new identification presented) they were detailed and expelled.
The Results
Initially set up in 2001 with about 90,000 personnel, by 2005 more than 300,000 foreign nationals were recorded in the database, all of whom had been expelled for visa violations, criminal activity, travelling under false documents. 47,000 travellers were detained attempting to reenter the Emirates under false documentation.
Since then, the Emirates have expanded their application of iris recognition beyond identifying expelled workers and have integrated it into the immigration channels for rapid processing of legitimate visitors to the UAE.
