Bangkok : Tactilis Pte. Limited, developers and manufacturers of a new biometric computer card technology, have entered an agreement for three pilot projects with the International Organisation of Migration (IOM), a related agency of the United Nations.

The pilot activities will evaluate the concepts, performance and viability of biometric system-on-card technology when deployed in three different migrant and foreign worker environments, namely visa card, cross border card and migrant camp card. There are close to 260 million migrants globally, with 75 million of those across Asia, many of whom are undocumented or displaced and require resettlement with trusted identity credentials.

The Tactilis card offers government grade biometric performance, multifunction capabilities and advanced management of user data and credentials. Aside from irrefutable identity verification, the card enables migrants to access multiple essential services in a simple and convenient way.

Speaking at the 5th Border Management & Identity Conference in Bangkok, Thailand, Tactilis Founder & CEO, Michael Gardiner, explained that the new card technology could play a significant role in securing borders whilst protecting migrants and foreign workers rights.

“We are delighted to work with IOM and honoured that our biometric card is recognised as an effective universal tool for global security and enables migrants’ access to essential healthcare and remittance services.”

Donato Colucci, Senior Regional Immigration and Border Management Specialist for IOM’s Regional Office for Asia-Pacific stated “Tactilis offers an exciting technology that we foresee could greatly assist our efforts to facilitate migrants, in particular foreign workers.”

He added “IOM continually seeks to leverage technology for the benefit of migrants and the governments that are hosting them. This type of biometric card complements and strengthens our existing and external tools and solutions based around mobile, blockchain, distributed ledger technology (DLT) and data management. We look forward to a successful collaboration with Tactilis.”

The initial three pilot programmes will be conducted in Asia and are planned to start deployment from Q1-2019.