Biometric identity solutions provider Crossmatch is helping German officials to manage the massive influx of refugees to the country. The company has announced that its technology has been deployed by Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge (BAMF), Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees.
More specifically, BAMF is using Crossmatch’s Guardian fingerprint scanners to enrol the biometrics of newcomers to the country, many of whom are arriving without official identification documents. It has long been standard procedure to collect fingerprint data, but Crossmatch’s digital solution will help German authorities to do so efficiently and securely. So far BAMF has ordered over a thousand Guardian devices, which are now being used at various processing facilities to match refugee claimants’ fingerprints against BAMF databases.
While the scanners serve an important administrative purpose, they are also crucial for security, and indeed as the migrant crisis continues and concerns about terrorism continue to rise, other European officials have been calling for more such measures for border screening and control. Crossmatch’s Guardian technology, first launched last year and with the latest Guardian device launched this fall, certainly fits the bill, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise if German or other EU officials place more orders in the near future.
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December 9, 2015 – by Alex Perala
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