South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs is seeking a service provider to build a mobile biometric system that would let officials verify a person’s immigration status in the field, starting with the procurement of 600 handheld devices with built-in fingerprint and face capture.
According to the tender, the department wants a Biometric Case Management System paired with off-the-shelf handheld devices, giving its Inspectorate, the unit that enforces the Immigration Act, remote access to Home Affairs systems during day-to-day operations. Officials would verify in real time whether a person is in the country lawfully by photographing their face and capturing their fingerprints, with matches run against the department’s database. Biometrics of newly detected suspects would also be stored in the system, and the department says the devices would support tracking and re-verifying detainees for deportation purposes, including at ports of entry when handing over deportees.
The specifications call for devices that can capture and verify all ten fingerprints and match them against the database in real time, with front and rear cameras producing photographs to the International Civil Aviation Organization standard used for identity documents. Each unit must run Android 10 or higher, offer at least eight hours of battery life, a display of at least 5.5 inches, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of expandable storage, and be rugged and waterproof for fieldwork. The tender closes on July 24, with a contract spanning 36 months and a possible two-year extension, and rollout likely in late 2026.
The procurement extends an enforcement push the department has already tied to its identity systems, having linked its migration enforcement plan to biometric digital ID as part of a wider digital upgrade in which biometrics play a central role. Home Affairs said in early July that inland deportations had increased 46 percent, supported by enhanced technology at the Border Management Authority, and Minister Leon Schreiber has said handheld devices would accelerate the effort by giving officials an immediate answer on a person’s status.
The department has already demonstrated the approach on the ground. In a 2025 operation in Cape Town’s District 6, officials used biometric scanning in an operation that led to the arrest of 25 people suspected of being in the country without authorisation, with Schreiber saying at the time that verifying immigration status biometrically eliminates the risk of fraudulent documents and builds stronger legal cases.
Sources: MyBroadband
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By Ali Nassar-Smith
