Riyadh to fingerprint visitors

Published May 13, 2005

RIYADH, May 12: Saudi Arabia will soon start fingerprinting people entering the kingdom. Although no firm date has been announced, preparations are under way to enforce a law to this effect. Quoting a security official, the Arab News said that the law had already been approved and would be enforced soon in coordination with Saudi embassies.

Security-related reasons were cited as the reason for this new regulation. It has been reported in past that expatriates with criminal records in the kingdom at times return to the country using a different name and passport. However once a person is fingerprinted, it would not be possible to change the finger marks.

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