Fingerprint scanners in districts: Centre's revised procedure for foreigners ID portal

After facing technical issues in uploading biometrics of detected illegal migrants on Foreigners Identification Portal (FIP) of the National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS), the Centre has revised the procedure for the portal and asked states/UTs to now use fingerprint scanners available in districts under districts police module (DPM) of Immigration Visa Foreigner Registration Tracking system (IVFRT).
The MHA in a communication earlier this month said that it has decided to review the tools of DPM and FIP for the deportation of illegal migrants with all stakeholders and found that several states/UTs were facing issues regarding digitization of fingerprints captured on paper and sending it to the NCRB for digitization. An official said that this led to 'certain gaps between data of taking fingerprints on paper by manual scanning as compared to digital record'.
The official said, 'It has been decided by the Centre that the infrastructure and equipment of NAFIS will not be used for collecting of biometrics of detected illegal migrants on the FIP portal… Now onwards, the fingerprint scanners available at district under DPM of IVFRT will be used.'
To facilitate deportation of illegally staying Rohingyas, the MHA had launched a portal in 2018 to collect biographic and biometric details after giving access to all states/UTs, the communication said.
'The DPM was rolled out in 2023 to enhance the capabilities for identification of overstaying foreigners and later the portal was upgraded into a comprehensive portal — FIP to cover illegal migrants from all countries. It was then decided that for capturing biometrics of illegal migrants in FIP, NAFIS machines provided by the NCRB, will be utilised and that biometric data will be captured in the standardised format for inter-operable use,' the official said.
The NCRB three years ago had implemented the NAFIS project, providing equipment to all districts, police commissionerates, state fingerprint bureau, the central fingerprint bureau and central law enforcement agencies to establish a national repository of criminal fingerprints.
Also, the fingerprint identification system of all States/UTs has been integrated with NAFIS, creating a national repository of 1.06 crore criminal fingerprint records till October 31 last year. Later, the database of FIP was also added in the NAFIS.
After reviewing, it has been decided that fingerprint, scanners, computers and webcams will also be provided to police stations, especially in the identified hotspots, in the holding (detention) centres and also in the Border Out Posts (BOPs) manned by the Border Guarding Forces for collection of biometrics of detected illegal migrants, and uploaded by agencies concerned on the FIP.
'…the Ministry of External Affairs will take further action for getting nationality verification of the cases of illegal migrants, referred to them on the FIP Portal by the Foreigners Registration Office (FROs),' an official said.
'The Bureau of Immigration has been made the nodal authority at the Central level through Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRROs) for the FIP and they have to ensure two things: the migration data from the FIP to IVFRT system and data will not be transferred to the NAFIS now onwards,' a senior official said.
Mahender Singh Manral is an Assistant Editor with the national bureau of The Indian Express. He is known for his impactful and breaking stories. He covers the Ministry of Home Affairs, Investigative Agencies, National Investigative Agency, Central Bureau of Investigation, Law Enforcement Agencies, Paramilitary Forces, and internal security.
Prior to this, Manral had extensively reported on city-based crime stories along with that he also covered the anti-corruption branch of the Delhi government for a decade. He is known for his knack for News and a detailed understanding of stories. He also worked with Mail Today as a senior correspondent for eleven months. He has also worked with The Pioneer for two years where he was exclusively covering crime beat.
During his initial days of the career he also worked with The Statesman newspaper in the national capital, where he was entrusted with beats like crime, education, and the Delhi Jal Board. A graduate in Mass Communication, Manral is always in search of stories that impact lives. ... Read More

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