News in Brief

Serbia and Kosovo Settle Dispute Over ID Documents

Serbia and Kosovo have settled an ethnic dispute over the movement of citizens across their border, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.

‘We have a deal,’ Borrell said in a tweet. ‘Kosovo Serbs, as well as all other citizens, will be able to travel freely between Kosovo and Serbia using their ID cards. The EU just received guarantees from PM (Albin) Kurti to this end.’ The dispute stemmed from predominantly ethnic Albanian Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008, something Belgrade has refused to recognise.

Serbia and Kosovo still have to agree on the hotly contested use of Serbian car number plates issued in the north of Kosovo, where Serbs defy the government in Pristina and see Belgrade as their capital.

Independent Kosovo is recognised by the United States and all but five EU members, but not by a number of other states including Serbia’s allies Russia and China.

The most recent flare-up of tensions between Serbia and Kosovo has been triggered by a directive from Kosovo authorities for local Serbs to switch their car number plates from Serbian to Kosovo ones from 1 September.

Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic said he was hoping the EU would provide guarantees for the personal documents’ agreement. He also said Serbia would be issuing a ‘a general disclaimer’ in which it would be written that the use of identity cards issued by Pristina was allowed for practical reasons with an aim of facilitating the freedom of movement but not tantamount to the recognition of Kosovo’s independence.

Finland’s Digital Passport Experiment

Finland has recently notified the EU of its willingness to test out digitising the country’s official documents, making it the first country in the union to experiment with the technology.

A funding application has recently been submitted to the EU Commission. If accepted, a trial will be conducted among Finnish volunteers on flights to Croatia from Finland in spring 2023. The testing program would be funded by the EU Commission, with citizens of Finland and Croatia the first to try the innovation on themselves. The trial will take place at the renovated Helsinki Airport.

As for the process itself, the authorities will provide a group of volunteers with a special application for a smartphone. With this app, passengers will be able to send the information contained in their physical passports to border guards in electronic form, before the trip. However, during the pilot project, they will still need to have their paper passport with them.

Inevitably, there have been questions about the confidentiality of the personal data sent, but the developers have made assurances that information about the owner, which is verified in advance, will be deleted immediately after the trips are completed.

Saudi Women Must Still Cover Hair and Neck in ID Photos

Despite amendments to the regulations of the civil status system, women in Saudi Arabia must still cover their hair and necks in civil status ID card photos, according to Mohammed Al-Jasser, spokesman for the civil status department in the Kingdom.

The Council of Ministers has approved amendments to the regulations of the Civil Status system, with article 17 no more stating that ‘it is obligatory’ for women to cover their hair and necks in photos for civil status ID cards.

However, Al-Jasser told Arab News that only females between the ages of 10 and 14 can appear in ID photos with their hair uncovered, although he added that older women with certain health conditions might also be eligible for exemption.

Meanwhile Article 146 has been amended to state that the national identification document, printed or digital, should contain the following information: the ID holder’s photo, first name, father’s name, grandfather’s name and family name/ surname in both Arabic and English, place of birth, date of birth in Hijri and Gregorian format, civil registry number, ID expiry date in Hijri and Gregorian format, ID copy serial number, official logos, and security features, and any data the Ministry of Civil Status deems necessary to be added or deleted.

The photo on a Saudi man’s identity card should show him wearing Saudi traditional dress, such as a shemag headdress. The photo on the woman’s identity card should show her wearing a covering for her hair and neck. The Department of Civil Affairs tweeted that there was no provision for a special colour for the veil.

Job Applicant Spoofs Biometrics with Friend’s Thumb

A candidate for a job on India’s railway system went to the extreme measure of grafting his thumb print onto his friend’s thumb in the hope that the friend would clear the biometric verification and sit the recruitment exam in his place.

The railway job candidate removed his thumb skin using a hot pan and pasted it on his friend’s thumb. He did so with a hope that the friend would clear the biometric verification and sit the recruitment examination in his place.

However, their plan failed when the exam supervisor sprayed sanitiser on the proxy’s hand and the skin fell off before the test could start. The candidate and his proxy were both arrested.

De La Rue Announces Extension of Australian Passport Contract

De La Rue plc has announced that it has entered into a 5-year extension of its contract with Note Printing Australia (NPA) for the sole-source supply of polycarbonate data pages for Australian passports. This contract originally went live in February 2022 and had a 5-year duration; it has now been extended to 2032.

The agreement will result in De La Rue investing further to expand production at its Malta facility to meet increased volume demand, with the additional investment being covered by incremental cash flows. The expanded capacity is expected to be in place around the beginning of Financial Year 2023/24.

Clive Vacher, CEO of De La Rue said, ‘We are grateful to Note Printing Australia for their confidence to extend our relationship to a full decade. This extension helps to underpin management’s confidence in the Company’s long-term outlook for the division.

‘We are already in the process of delivering highly secure and durable polycarbonate data pages for the Australian passport programme, and we will ramp up this production further in the coming months.’ Mr Vacher continued, ‘The additional investment will enable us to satisfy further demand and is incremental to the previously announced expansion of our Authentication and Currency factory in Malta. We look forward to many more years of continued collaboration with NPA.’