Biometric passports for refugees in Armenia

Contact details

Submitted by: Head of Passports and Visas Department, Police of the Republic of Armenia

Email: [email protected]

Introduction to the project 

Country

Armenia

Duration

The project has begun in 2015 through amendments to the RA Law on Refugees and Asylum. It’s currently ongoing due to the competitive bidding process.

The project will continue untill 2023.

Description

On 30.06.2016 amendments to the RA Law “On Refugees and Asylum” entered into force which envisages issuing biometric documents to people recognized as refugees and granted asylum in the Republic of Armenia in line with the requirements of Articles 27-29 of the Convention on the Status of Refugees. For getting the following identification documents a competition process has been launched which is still in progress. It will be possible to provide internationally recognized biometric documents in accordance with ICAO standards to people recognized as refugees in Armenia after the realization of the competition and signing the contract with the winning organization to launch the system.

At the same time, currently in Travel Documents issued  to refugees, both their personal data (name, surname) and other notes are written only in English, which in practice causes problems for individuals exercising their rights in the Republic of Armenia (in particular, some institutions demand Armenian translations, which will cause additional costs for the individuals), so the technical task of the tender for acquiring new documents will include the demand of filling in personal data in Armenian too.

Project aims 

This project will help refugees to have more protected documents in line with international standards.

Resources used 

Providing international experience is providing technical specifications, descriptions and templates of documents submitted by the most successful countries.

Partners

• The Government of the RA
•  EKENG CJSC

Results of the Good Practice 

• After the competition, the Republic of Armenia will issue a Refugee ID Card and a Convention Travel Document to Refugees.
• The documents will also contain Armenian notes to make the realization of the rights of refugees in the territory of the Republic of Armenia more effective.

Next steps 

The project will continue untill 2023.