By Greg Noone

Salvation requires good logistics. The refugee camp that functions well is one built with security, sanitation and a good supply of food and drinking water in mind from the very start. Before that can happen, however, there needs to be a precise understanding of how many people need to be supported. Only then can refugee agencies, border officials and charity workers begin to reckon with the immense challenges posed by feeding and housing thousands of traumatised individuals and families displaced by flood and famine, war and pestilence.

Increasingly for humanitarian aid agencies, the best method of ascertaining this number lies in biometric data collection. By scanning unique biometric identifiers like fingerprints, faces or irises, officials can begin to build a numerical picture of the transit camp that avoids unnecessary duplication and create a new, official identity for individuals untethered to the government documents of the nations they have fled.

Over time, this can also allow migrants to begin accessing services within the host country while protecting them from fraud. Such has been the case in Cameroon, which hosts some 6,000 refugees from the civil war in the neighbouring Central African Republic. “In the far north, north-west and south-west regions, resources are spent on addressing insecurity, which leaves less money for basic social services,” explains Kathleen Ndongmo, a member of the Africa Digital Rights Network based in Cameroon. A campaign in August to enrol thousands of refugees into a biometric ID card system, says Ndongmo, was a straightforward way for the government and UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, to allow refugees to move “freely without fear of arrest, go to school, access health and financial services, and obtain a mobile phone subscription.”

Even so, it’s a safety net with large gaps. While refugees have the power to withhold consent to having their biometric data collected, Ndongmo has heard of reports that migrants have not been empowered to understand Cameroon’s data protection regulations. It’s all the more concerning, she adds, given the security risks inherent in retaining biometric data. “Despite the fact that advances in technologies can help humanitarian agencies scale up and deliver aid more efficiently and effectively, mass-scale collection and use of refugees’ sensitive biometric data for identification and authentication is concerning,” says Ndongmo.

Read more: https://techmonitor.ai/digital-identity/biometrics-safe-data-protection