RIYADH, 5 November 2006 — Seven million residents who make up 30 percent of the Kingdom’s population are expected to be fingerprinted in the near future, according to Maj. Gen. Saleh Al-Khudair, head of the Riyadh Passport Department.
The Riyadh Passport Department began implementing a new electronic fingerprint identification system for foreign nationals yesterday. The system is still in the trial phase.
About 100 foreign nationals were randomly selected yesterday to participate in the experiment after the Riyadh Passport Department received four devices for the purpose from the National Information Center.
“This is an experimental period whose purpose is to identify people here in the Kingdom,” said Al-Khudair.
When a foreign national is fingerprinted, all his or her relevant data is stored in the database. Information includes the person’s full name, employer, religion and country of origin as well as the validity of his or her residence permit (iqama).
In addition to the fingerprints, a camera takes a photograph of the person and it is stored next to his fingerprints and this information is seen by the passport official upon exit or entry.
Al-Khudair did not say when the system would be operative in all the Kingdom’s passport departments. He said, however, that the Directorate of Passports has a plan to use the new system in all the Kingdom’s airports and seaports once it has completed the experimental phase. He did not specify when this would be.
Under the new system, security officers will be able to coordinate with authorities in identifying criminal suspects or persons wanted for investigation. “Fingerprinting is the best means of identification and cannot be forged,” he added.
Asked how the passport departments intended to deal with seven million legal residents in Saudi Arabia, Al-Khudair said that the directorate would implement a plan by which residents need not come to offices to be fingerprinted. “Specially-equipped Passport Department vehicles will be sent to different areas. In addition, mobile units and buildings may be rented and equipped with the necessary facilities for fingerprinting to take place there,” he explained.
He said that a statement would be released in the future once the initial experimental phase was over.
Gen. Salem Al-Bulaiheed, director general of the Passport Department, earlier told Arab News that if the system were completed and no technical changes were necessary, it would be used on all foreigners arriving in the Kingdom. According to the National Information Center, Saudi authorities are seeking to cooperate with civil status departments in the cities of the Kingdom in order to fingerprint Saudi nationals whenever he or she renews his civil status card or is issued a new one.
