Some Syrian refugees can now pay for food just by scanning their eyes
In Jordan, some Syrian refugees can now pay for their groceries with the blink of an eye.
The United Nations World Food Programme, which addresses the food needs of refugee populations, launched a new system at Jordan's King Abdullah Park refugee camp on Tuesday that uses iris scans to confirm the identities of refugees, quickly processing payment for those who receive food assistance. The World Food Programme called it a "milestone" in the evolution of its food assistance program.
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The system, though new to the World Food Programme, is not new to refugees in their relationship with the U.N. Similar technology is already used when refugees register with the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR), using their unique irises as a sort of fingerprint to store identification information in a database.
King Abdullah Park's iris-scanning machines simply pull this information from the database, deducting payment from a monthly food allowance once a refugee's identity is confirmed.
The new system makes the process of buying groceries more efficient for refugee populations, providing greater safety and security than electronic payment cards, which can easily be lost, stolen or misused.
“We are really capitalizing on technology that already exists,” Dina El-Kassaby, regional communications officer for the World Food Programme, told Mashable. “We are just giving this technology a retail spin.”
"Refugees are moving all the time ... We knew we could take it to the next level."
For refugees shopping for groceries, the new process simply means going to a store counter, scanning their items through checkout and looking into a machine to pay. There are no cards, cash or vouchers needed -- which is essential for a population that often struggles to maintain a static location.
“Refugees are moving all the time,” El-Kassaby said. “They are coming in and out of different countries. Having a physical thing like electronic payment cards is sometimes difficult, though the technology is very effective and has worked very well. We knew we could take it to the next level.”
At the onset of the refugee crisis, the World Food Programme solely provided aid in the form of hot meals distributed daily through relief check points in Jordan. As the crisis grew, refugees were given more autonomy over their food selections with an electronic payment card, refilled monthly with a food stipend for a more sustainable form of ongoing assistance.
While the electronic cards have been the standard for several years, they aren't always practical -- especially when it comes to safety and security.
“Sometimes, just like anyone, refugees would forget their PIN numbers or misplace their cards,” El-Kassaby said. “Or they would leave the country and leave the card behind. In some cases, cards would be stolen or misused. This iris scan technology just cuts all that out.”
There are more than 650,000 refugees living in Jordan, with most coming to the country from Syria. Of those refugees, 20% are living in refugee camps -- populations that are most in need of reliable food assistance.
Though the new technology is currently only operating in King Abdullah Park, where about 1,000 refugees live, El-Kassaby said she expects the program to expand across Jordan and other countries with high refugee populations in the coming months.
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Topics Social Good
Katie Dupere was a Social Good reporter at Mashable from May 2015 to July 2017, covering activism, identities and social impact. Prior to her work with Mashable, Katie penned pieces about queerness, body positivity, sex and relationships for Gurl. She also previously contributed LGBTQ news coverage to PinkNews.
