The problem of asylum and enforced displacement has become one of the major challenges defining the features of the 21st Century. The unjust dis-tribution of resources, economic crises, and high levels of unemployment are no longer the primary causes
of the widely spread phenomenon of immigra-tion, rather, it is caused by the noticeable increase of wars, international con-flicts and political crises, as well as their multilateral effects of oppression, poverty, exploitation and insecurity.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has expressed this reality in a statement made on September 07, 2011, when he said: “We live in difficult times. Political crises are multiplying where we least expect them. Unpredictability became the name of the game.”
The failure of the international community to bring many of the existing conflicts to an end and to avoid the eruption of other ones, has lead the in-stability situation to continue in so many places throughout the world. This has forced hundreds of thousands of individuals to leave their homelands. The figures are striking; by the end of 2017, the number of refugees and asy-lum seekers exceeded 65 million.
With the changed nature of crises, their expanded range and prolonged duration, in addition to the limited available resources and capacities, the failure to meet the increasing needs of refugees and the States’ increasing fears of terrorism, the world community and international organizations started to look for effective tools to improve crisis response systems and use new technologies in a way that ensures the refugees living in dignity and se-curity in countries of asylum instead of approaching them as a burden and a crisis that must be dealt with.
Here appears the role of bio measurements technology as an important tool to respond to refuge crises, including the management of such crises; first, by organizing the life of refugees and granting them ID cards in order to enable them to enjoy their basic rights in countries of asylum and then by changing that to an opportunity for development by working with them to develop their skills and know-how, so that they have access to safe and sus-tainable means of living, especially under the lack of economic and education opportunities and the strict policies applied against them. This must be the case until they manage to return voluntarily to their countries of origin. The human miracle always materializes in post destruction phases. The history proves that investment in human beings is the most effective way to achieve development and reduce the time needed by a country to rise again and that the more a country is destroyed, the bigger is its opportunity for reconstruc-tion.
Based on that and as UNHCR is the agency in charge of organizing the conditions of refugees in countries of asylum and finding durable solutions for them, it registered Syrian refugees in the neighboring countries based on their biometric data. Giving them identities and documenting their events properly is the first step on the long road to solve most of the problems they face both in countries of asylum or when they return home. This includes the problems of documenting personal status events and increases the countries of asylum’s confidence in UNHCR’s systems through confronting the rele-vant challenges and worries, such as faking identities, fraud, counterfeiting, etc. At the same time, these data are hoped to facilitate the return of Syrian refugees to their county when the conditions and circumstances allow such return.
