International Labor Organization (ILO) Seafarers' ID - Using ...

International Labor Organization 

(ILO) Seafarers' ID - Using 

Standards to Develop a Globally 

Interoperable Identity Document 

Dr. John Campbell, 

President, Bion Biometrics 

Biometrics Consortium Conference 

September 22, 2004

Outline of Presentation 

• The International Labour Organization 

• The Seafarers’ Identity Document (SID) 

• Biometrics and the SID 

• Biometric Standards and the SID 

• Biometric Testing and the SID 

• Conclusions

The International Labour 

Organization (ILO) 

• Created in 1919 

• Specialised agency of the United Nations 

• Tripartite Structure (Governments, 

Employers and Workers with equal 

rights) 

• Membership: 176 Member States

The International Labour 

Organization 

• Adopts International Labour Standards 

– Conventions (mandatory) e.g Convention 

No.185 

– Recommendations (Non-mandatory)

The Seafarers’ Seafarers’ 

Identity Document 

• After September 11, 2001, there was a strong 

concern over security of ports and shipping 

including identity of individuals on ships 

• ILO considered a revision of Convention 

No.108 adopted in 1958 at the International 

Labour Conference in March 2002 in reponse 

to a request by IMO for quick action 

• International Labour Conference adopted in 

June 2003, the Seafarers’ Identity Documents 

Convention (Revised), 2003 (No.185)



• To improve the security of seafarers’ 

identification by strengthening: 

• The physical aspects of the SID against falsification 

• The SID’s reliability in identifying the holder as the 

seafarer to whom it was issued 

• The procedures around document issuance 

• The ability to query for more details from issuing nations 

• To enable seafarers to be granted shore leave 

and to carry out professional movements 

(transit to and from ships) 

• To facilitate international commerce



• Convention No.185 now ratified by 

France and Jordan 

• 9 February 2005, Convention No.185 

enters into force 

• Transitional arrangements allow 62 

countries that have ratified Convention 

No.108 to issue new SID

Biometrics and the SID 

• ILO had to consider social issues around 

mandatory biometric identity document 

• Tripartite structure ensured that government, 

commerce and labour all had an equal say 

• Certain countries more focused on security 

than cost of implementation 

• Countries with most seafarers very concerned 

about cost 

• Seafarers concerned about privacy


• Biometric could be used for identification in 

issuing country (prevent duplicate identities, do 

background checks) 

• In receiving countries, biometric only used to 

verify that seafarer was person to whom SID 

was originally issued 

• Original copy of biometric and other 

information on card stored in issuing country 

database (must be available 24/7) so suspicious 

SIDs can be queried


• Biometric selected had to be: 

– Reliable 

– Cost-Effective 

– Suitable for 1:1 or 1:many searches 

• Two Fingerprints on 2D barcode selected 

• Use of 2D barcode assures governments 

of cheaper production and seafarers that 

data can’t be altered after issuance 

• This was why IC chips were not selected

Biometric Standards and the SID 

• Many nations issuing, many more receiving 

• Style of document and form of MRZ borrowed 

from ICAO 9303 

– interoperable issuance/reading established 

• 2D barcode is PDF 417 

– well established technology 

– poor quality printing can affect readability 

– each issuance system will be checked on setup 

• Interoperable biometric system is harder 

– Select single vendor or use international standards


• ILO sought advice from ISO and ICAO 

• ISO biometric standards still in draft 

• Rapid deadline for Convention No. 185 meant 

nations had to procure systems starting in 2004 

• ISO took unusual step of allowing ILO to 

completely reproduce two draft standards 

• ILO locked into a specific early version of 

standard, but nations can begin to procure 

• ILO in March 2004 adopted SID-0002


• SID-0002 features 3 draft SC 37 standards 

– ISO 19784 – BioAPI (SC 37 N055) 

– ISO 19794-2 – Finger Minutiae (SC 37 N340)* 

– ISO 19794-4 – Finger Image (SC 37 N341)* 

• One is dated December, 2002 and the others 

are October, 2003 

• 19794-4 defines image capture parameters 

• 19784 defines header of Biometric Interchange 

Record (biometric part of barcode payload) 

• 19794-2 defines format of minutiae record


• Creation and interpretation of header info 

from BIR and minutiae record following 

19794-2 are critical 

• Every SID issuance system and verification 

station must interpret these in the same way 

• Unfortunately: 

– Standards have changed since draft so vendors may 

be confused between ISO version and ILO SID-0002 

– No formal conformance testing standards exist 

– Two fingers in one BIR is unusual


• Long term solution is to use final ISO 

standards 

• ILO may wish to consider other biometrics 

• In order to support enhanced security of 

seafarer identification, NBSP agreed to support 

development of a new standard in SC 37 

– Biometrics-Based Verification and Identification of 

Seafarers 

– If ratified by SC 37, will become a new formal ISO 

standard that can eventually be adopted by ILO

Biometric Testing and the SID 

• To guarantee global interoperability, ILO will 

test every biometric sub-system to be used with 

SID issuance and verification systems 

• Test must include: 

– Conformance 

• Can biometric systems read and write BIRs that 

meet all requirements of 19784 and 19794-2 

– Performance 

• Can biometric systems achieve false match and 

false non-match < 1% on population of seafarers 

– Interoperability


• Interoperability Testing has two Levels 

• Basic Interoperability 

– Seafarer enrolls two fingers on system A 

– Can either or both be verified on system B 

• Performance Based Interoprability 

– Enroll System A and Verify System A 

• FMR = X% and FNMR = Y% 

– Enroll System A and Verify System B 

• FMR = P% and FNMR = Q% 

– When is performance reduction too great?


• In June, 2004 the ILO requested interested 

vendors to provide fingerprint 

sensor/algorithm pairs (FSAP) for testing 

• Many companies expressed interest, but the 

standards based requirements and timelines 

eliminated all but 10 FSAP 

• Detailed conformance testing (with multiple 

software updates allowed) eliminated more 

• The rest were tested for basic interoperability 

and allowed one more software update


• The remaining FSAP will soon be tested in an 

operational environment on board a ship for up 

to six weeks with approximately 200 seafarers 

• Every combination of enroll and verify on 

different systems will be tried multiple times by 

multiple (very patient) seafarers 

• A detailed report will be prepared for ILO 

covering all aspects of conformance, 

performance and interoperability


• ILO will use the results of the tests to generate 

a list of approved FSAP that can be used for 

SID issuance or inspection 

• Countries can then procure the biometric 

components of their SID systems 

• Since all the biometric sensors, algorithms and 

data records will have been tested against one 

another, a globally interoperable system should 

result

Conclusions 

• SID is a globally interoperable biometric 

based identity document for seafarers 

• Use of standards helps to provide a basis 

for a globally interoperable system 

• Conformance to standards does not 

guarantee interoperability 

• Need standards and testing combined

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