Experimentation in humanitarian locations: UNHCR and biometric registration of Afghan refugees

Abstract

Amid good intentions, such as providing humanitarian assistance to refugees, the use of biometric technology in humanitarian refugee management may entail various risks for the implicated refugee populations. Drawing on insights from science and technology studies, this article introduces a distinction between risks stemming from technology failure and risks stemming from successful uses of biometric technology. The article thus departs from the literature in which technology failure has been in focus by showing that analysing the effect of technology success adds an important dimension to our analysis of the range of risks that may emerge in the context of humanitarian technology uses. The usefulness of this distinction is then illustrated through an analysis of the use by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) of iris recognition in the repatriation of Afghan refugees; besides risks of failure at the implementation stage, risks also emerged once refugees had successfully registered their biometric data with UNHCR. To recognize how humanitarian refugee biometrics produces digital refugees at risk of exposure to new forms of intrusion and insecurity, we need to appreciate how successful technology can have critical implications arising from how technology is constituted in and constitutive of social phenomena.

Rethinking access: how humanitarian technology governance blurs control and care

“…Scholars have documented how, in the colonial periphery, various new medical technologies (including vaccination techniques) have been tested in experiments that exposed colonial subjects to insecurities and harmful side effects (Petryna, , ). Looking at experimental uses of new technology in contemporary humanitarian settings, we see trials of unapproved medical innovations as well as testing of a range of technological innovations, from piloting of mobile health platforms (Tomlinson et al, ) to trials of ‘fortified blended foods’ (Scott‐Smith, , ), genetically modified foods, and other biometric technologies (Jacobsen, , ). These interventions are often justified on the basis of improvements in ‘care', even as their effectiveness is often mixed.…”

“…Looking at experimental uses of new technology in contemporary humanitarian settings, we see trials of unapproved medical innovations as well as testing of a range of technological innovations, from piloting of mobile health platforms (Tomlinson et al, 2013) to trials of 'fortified blended foods' (Scott-Smith, 2015a, 2015b), genetically modified foods, and other biometric technologies ( Jacobsen, 2015a( Jacobsen, , 2015b. These interventions are often justified on the basis of improvements in 'care', even as their effectiveness is often mixed.…”

“…See Jacobsen (, ) on how such technology failures could potentially translate into humanitarian failures to assist refugees deserving of assistance (according UNHCR's mandate).…”

Encryption as a Security Technology. Notes on the German Debate on encryption, Uncertainty and Risk

“…his meant a broadening of the research agenda in terms of its theoretical resources by engaging with the theories of science and technology studies (sTs), most prominently here the actor-network-theory (anT) as developed by Bruno Latour, annemarie Mol, John Law and Michel Callon (Latour 1999;Callon 1984;Mol 2010). It also means expanding the object of research, focusing on technologies and security devices like drones or biometrics (Leander 2013;Jacobsen 2015). encryption technology has so far not been granted much attention within Css (but see: Dunn Cavelty 2007).…”

Bringing Law into the Political Sociology of Humanitarianism

“…37 Attention has been given to the humanitarian concern with shrinking space, 38 more recently also with a focus on the role of technology and knowledge politics in constituting a humanitarian cyberspace 39 and with respect to the increasing use of biometrics. 40 From this disciplinary and thematic stocktaking follows two observations. First, that humanitarianism as both empirical practice and theoretical concept transgresses physical and disciplinary borders alike, and that this underlines the need for further interdisciplinarity.…”