Ukraine has delved further into biometric passports with a new law. Supported by 226 of the Verkhovna Rada’s 450 parliamentarians, bill No. 3224 clarifies policies regarding the country’s passport issuance.
With respect to biometrics, the new law stipulates that in addition to the traditional ink-based prints, digital fingerprint data must also be collected at the passport’s issuance, provided the citizen seeking the passport has provided consent for fingerprinting. The law also stipulates that all citizens must obtain passports at the age of 14, and that marital status won’t be stamped upon an individual’s passport.
Ukraine’s efforts in establishing a biometric passport program go back some way, with the government having endeavored to install hundreds of biometric passport processing terminals across the country back in the autumn of 2014, largely in anticipation of membership in the European Union. But EU membership concerns aside, biometric passport programs are increasingly being undertaken by governments around the world, with Pakistan and Turkey being notable recent examples.
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July 15, 2016 – by Alex Perala
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