By Sidi Mohamed
DOHA: Archiving of fingerprinting of foreign workers would go fully digital by the middle of this year, a senior official of the Ministry of Interior has said.
Digitisation of more than 1.6 million fingerprints has been completed and the remaining are expected to be converted into the electronic format very soon, Captain Mohamed Mubarak Al Subaie, Head of Fingerprinting Section at the Criminal Evidences and Information Department (CEID) told the ministry magazine “Police
With You.”
“In coordination with the Information Systems Department and other authorities concerned, we started preparing the electronic archive for fingerprinting on April 17, 2014, which was earlier done in papers,” said Al Subaie.
He said about 2,000 to 2,600 fingerprints are taken daily. The procedure takes between 5 to 10 minutes and then the fingerprints are transferred to Passports Department of the Ministry as a prerequisite for issuing residency permits to newly-recruited foreign workers, he explained. “After that we complete the remaining steps such as storing the fingerprints in the servers, to be used as a proof of identity,” said Al Subaie.
Companies are now required to take prior appointment over phone to make the procedures easier and faster for their workers and avoid crowding at the services centres offering fingerprinting.
However, companies with very small number of workers can send their workers without a prior appointment.
The section has specified two days in a week- Sunday and Monday- for such workers. Other days are dedicated for companies with bigger number of workers.
The Peninsula
