Interior Ministry launches facial recognition system at border checkpoints across Georgia
It said the effective operation of the system would “significantly contribute” to the protection of state and public safety, and noted the programme was also ensuring that Georgia fulfilled its obligations under various international agreements, including better management of the visa-free travel with the countries of the European Union and the Schengen Area. Photo: Interior Ministry
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The Georgian Interior Ministry on Wednesday said it had launched an electronic facial recognition programme earlier this month to increase the effectiveness of control at border checkpoints across the country.
The Ministry said the system would enable border guards and controllers to “promptly and accurately” identify wanted, deported, banned or other offending individuals via automated data processing.
It said the effective operation of the system would “significantly contribute” to the protection of state and public safety, and noted the programme was also ensuring that Georgia fulfilled its obligations under various international agreements, including better management of the visa-free travel with the countries of the European Union and the Schengen Area.
Facial recognition programmes were being “successfully used” in a number of European countries and were an “effective means of combating illegal migration”, the body added.
Georgia’s Border Police has installed electronic alarm systems and obstacle fences at three locations along the border to improve monitoring of the areas of the state boundary, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday.
The Georgian Border Police has received a donation of off-road vehicles from the United Nations International Organisation for Migration, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said on Tuesday.
The Georgian Border Police has received a donation of border surveillance equipment, off-road vehicles and buses from the United Nations’ International Organisation for Migration, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said on Thursday.
The United States Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Proliferation Prevention Program has donated six troop carriers, two 6,000 liter fuel trucks and seven Suzuki off-road vehicles to the Georgian Border Police ‘to increase mobility to remote border sectors’.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs on Monday said the number of border crossings in Georgia totalled 7,180,916 in the third quarter of 2023, of which 76 percent were carried out by foreign citizens and 24 percent by Georgian nationals.
Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Friday said the Georgian Government would “consider all recommendations” in the sixth report of the European Commission on the fulfilment of visa-free obligations by Eastern Partnership countries and the Balkan states and follow up on their implementation.
Irakli Shotadze, the Prosecutor General of Georgia, on Tuesday said an individual wanted by Italy under the Interpol Red Circular for participating in an organised crime group had been arrested in Georgia.
A total of 190 foreign nationals were deported from Georgia throughout 2023, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said on Wednesday in its latest update of the figures.