Full circle: IrisGuard to enable cash assistance for Syrian refugees returning home

We are pleased to announce a new agreement with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, to enable cash assistance for eligible Syrian refugees returning home after more than a decade in exile, using our iris recognition technology. This milestone extends a partnership that began in the earliest days of the Syrian crisis in 2012. This will ensure that eligible returning families receive much needed financial support securely and directly upon return to Syria, helping them to re-establish their lives back in their country.

Since 2012, we have worked closely with UNHCR and humanitarian agencies across the region to introduce a first-of-its-kind payment system that uses the human iris for identity assurance and benefit delivery to millions of refugees. Our EyeCloud® platform was integrated into UNHCR’s registration and Financial Service Provider systems in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt, enabling cash, in-kind, and food voucher programs with rigorous authentication, authorization and settlement assurance. Refugees have been able to access aid using digital wallets, money exchangers, ATMs, post offices and supermarkets without the need for cards, phones, PINs, or identification documents ensuring that only the intended recipients could collect their assistance.

Now, together with UNHCR, we are coming full circle, providing protection for refugees using their eye every step of the way: from a one-time registration under emergency conditions more than a decade ago, to providing cash and other assistance over the years, to now enabling cash assistance for eligible Syrian refugees returning home to Syria; always with reliable, dignified assistance delivery facilitated by the same IrisGuard technology that helped sustain and protect them in exile.

"This partnership is deeply meaningful to us," said Imad Malhas, our Founder & Managing Director. "From the day families were forced to leave Syria, we have been there to help protect what was rightfully theirs. To now serve them again as they return home, and to know our technology has accompanied and protected them full circle, is both humbling and profoundly satisfying."

Under this new agreement, the same groundbreaking innovation will be used to verify refugee returnee families eligible to receive financial assistance with the same assurance and integrity that has guided this successful program for more than a decade, all while supporting transparency and enhanced accountability using the iris.