Passengers arriving at King Abdul Aziz Airport in Jeddah and Prince Muhammad Bin Abdul Aziz Airport in Madina will be fingerprinted starting this Haj season, said Brigadier General Zaid Al-Turaifi, director of the Passport Institute, in Riyadh Saturday. In 2003, Saudi Arabia initiated a package of new measures including fingerprinting to eliminate the problem of overstayers. Now foreign residents and visitors will be fingerprinted to help put an end to those who enter the country with fake passports or forged papers. It will also help with security background checks. The Passport Institute has been training its students to master the operation of the new electronic fingerprinting system at the Kingdom's entry points, Al-Turaifi said. The government has recently started fingerprinting seven million foreign residents, who make up 30 percent of the Kingdom's total population of 21 million, which is expected to reach 34 million in 2020, according to reports from the World Bank. 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) or visa. A digital photo of the person is saved in the database too. This live scan technology would help speed up the process of coordinating among security authorities through sending electronic fingerprints online to easily and quickly identify criminal suspects or persons wanted for investigation. Using electronic transmission, a passport office at any point of entry can get results from other government offices concerned almost instantly as opposed to paper-based fingerprint cards which could take weeks. – Okaz __
