Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAFM): DLT Supports the Two Major Aspects of Asylum Procedures

In a recent report, it was revealed that Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAFM) has discovered how useful Distributed ledger is, when it comes to improving asylum procedures within its borders. This discovery was made by the agency after it completed a proof-of-concept (PoC), research on the subject. The discovery has since being published on a white paper

BAFM Researches Proof-of-Concept (PoC)

The Whitepaper which was edited by the BAFM is said to be authored by the Project Group Business & Information Systems Engineering of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology FIT.

According to the whitepaper, the proof-of-concept (PoC) process was carried out by BAFM, and Fraunhofer FIT alone. An unnamed technology partner was also involved in the process which took place in H1 2018. The (PoC) process is designed around evaluating the potential DLT has when it comes to supporting the two major aspects of asylum procedures:

•  Improving communication and cooperation between authorities at a municipal, state and national level.
• The creation of reliable and secure digital identities and improving communication.

During the research process for the PoC, the three Partners involved in the operation made use of a permissioned version (private) of an Ethereum-based blockchain platform.

Tamper-proof Identity

According to the white paper, it was discovered that DLT allows for the development of tamper-proof digital identities for refugees that arrive without ID documents. This identity is based on biometric data which was collected at their entry points.
With this tamper-proof information effectively stored, it becomes relatively easy to verify the identity of each asylum applicant across multiple agencies.

“Blockchain could be the ‘digital enabler’ of European federalism in the asylum context. […] A European platform for the decentralised management of asylum procedures […] would enable the transparent storage of a person’s place of initial registration. […] Digital identities are per se nationally agnostic and could thus support Europe’s unity at a fundamental level.” the white paper noted