TBC’s Strategy on Digital Identity and Inclusion
Why it is important to digitally include Refugees, Stateless and other forcibly displaced persons. It not only makes sense but is the right thing to do.
Today, we live in a world where we are constantly faced with violence and natural disasters that force thousands of families to flee from their homes each day. It is now time to take the lead and show the world that we stands with refugees.
What is the problem?
Imagine, If you were forced to flee from your home to save your life, among falling bombs or due to a natural disaster, what would you carry along with you apart from your loved ones? Would your identity documents be one of the first things you pack? Because national ID cards, passports, residence permits, and even birth certificates are documents that will be necessary to prove your identity to the authorities in the place to which you have fled. They will be even more important in your home country to prove your legitimacy when conditions in your home country are safe to return.
If you don’t have these documents, there is a strong possibility of the already horrific scenario becoming much worse. If you are forced to cross-over an international border, and you’re without identity documents, it will be virtually impossible for you to take the legal channels.
Without identification issued by the host country, refugees are also likely to face issues in accessing services that help facilitate self-sufficiency and local integration, such as a SIM card, a bank account, education for children, and healthcare.
What are the opportunities?
In any promising and ideal world, every person should be in possession of identification documents, such as an ID card to help authorities in getting to his whereabouts. This is rarely the case in 3rd world developing countries. The ongoing refugees crisis around the world has only made things worse. This creates opportunities to provide a legal identity for one and all residing on a given State’s territory, this is not going to be restricted to nationals only and will bring into its ambit the refugees too.
This is going to be a win-win for everybody: States will get a clearer picture on who lives on their territory whilst the refugees and other forcibly displaced persons will finally receive valid identity documents. But with technology playing such an important role in the 21st century, National IDs need not be just paper based and based on breeder documents, like birth certificates and ID cards. With technologies that enable people to access internet from anywhere on their mobile phones, and bringing them much closer to information, education, banking, and other economic opportunities, the concept and realities of identification documents has broadened.
TowardsBlockchain, which offers a wide range of innovative & technological services revolving around the concepts of Blockchain & Artificial intelligence could show the way here with its cutting edge offering KYCWallet. It is a safe and secure digital identity built on disruptive blockchain technology and AI and can serve the purpose of giving clearer insight into the refugees background. It gives the user complete ownership over his identity.
It could help as refugees would be able to carry certified identification documents on hand-held devices and these can then be accessed by authorities to ascertain identity. This would reduce the suffering of refugees to a great extent as this would open their door to self-sufficiency and local integration.
