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Riyadh: The Saudi passport department began fingerprinting foreign workers in the kingdom in a move that aims, among other things, to control the number of expatriate workers and cut the volume of paper used in the passport transactions.
Major General Saleh Al Khudair, director of passports in the Riyadh region, yesterday launched a biomedical enrolment mobile unit at the main entrance of King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh. The unit will take fingerprints of the large expatriate community in the hospital.
The passports department coordinated with owners of large companies and establishments to allocate a space for mobile units as teams from the department will be assigned to take the fingerprints, Major General Al Khudair said.
A large number of foreigners overstay after coming for the Haj or Umrah. Many of them dispose of all their identity documents after entering the kingdom.
The move to collect fingerprints from foreigners will also prevent those expatriates who flee after committing crimes in the kingdom from returning to the country under a different name and with a different passport.
Successful
"By adopting the technology as a strategic option, the passports [department] will be able to perform its duties efficiently," Major General Al Khudair said.
Speaking to reporters, he seemed confident about the system, saying that it has so far succeeded, which is a positive indicator of future success.
Major General Al Khudair underlined that fingerprints would be taken from everyone entering the kingdom.
Asked how the approximately seven million foreign workers will be fingerprinted, Major General Al Khudair said that his department has prepared a plan for this purpose.
Though he did not provide details, he added that the passport department is in contact with all local companies and establishments employing foreigners to assign days for fingerprinting.
He also did not rule out moving some passport department staff to the premises of these companies to complete the fingerprinting.
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