Iris verification center

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Iris Verification Center is a UNHCR funded center for Afghan returnees, the technology was introduced by UNHCR Pakistan in 2002 to counter attempts to claim return benefits more than once, saving valuable donor money, and making sure assistance went to deserving Afghan Refugees.

The Iris Verification process takes an image of an iris, storing it in the form of a number without recording the name, gender, age or destination. The technology has no effect on the eye. Because of the cultural sensitivity, female Afghan returnees are checked by UNHCR women employees to ensure their faces are not seen by male staff.

A sensitisation campaign was carried out among Afghan refugees living in camps and urban areas of Pakistan by UNHCR before the introduction of the iris verification system.

The U.N Refugee Agency lowered the age limit for iris verification from 12 years to six years to prevent adults abusing children by hiring them out for repeated trips to Afghanistan.

UNHCR operates three Iris Verification Centers in Pakistan: one in Quetta and two in the North West Frontier Province at Alizai and the Hayatabad district of Peshawar.