Identity document

Turkish authorities have begun the distribution of new biometric identity cards in the Central Anatolian province of K?r?kkale, which was selected as the pilot province for the program.

The new "smart" cards, which contain chips, will replace the old versions, which were bigger and contained no information beyond the basic facts printed on them.        

Some 20 Macedonians who want to formalize their sex changes by obtaining new IDs, face long administrative obstacles and rejection by institutions who pronounce themselves incompetent to deal with the issue.

Officers of the border police department in the Bulgarian town of Tsarevo detained on Thursday 37 foreigners who had illegally entered into the country.

The officers uncovered the migrants when they stopped a Ford Transit van bearing British licence plates for inspection at the bridge over Karaagach river.

Turkish riot police have forcefully detained 11 for refusing to show their identity cards and undergo a body search at the entrance of Ankara University’s Cebeci campus

Bulgarian border police detained 34 illegal immigrants in three operations across the country on Saturday.

On Saturday night a border police patrol attempted to stop two vehicles for a check near the village of Gabar in the municipality of Sozopol.

The delivery of new, modernized Turkish identity cards will be completed across the country by 2018, as Turkish authorities recently announced Turkish IDs would be updated in line with the country's deal with the European Union on easing visa restrictions for Turkish citizens traveling to Europe.

More than 4 million Turkish people have lost their national identification cards over the past three years, according to data revealed amid government plans to introduce modernized identification cards for Turkish citizens.

Turkey has passed a new law to introduce a new version of identity cards for its citizens, as part of steps toward becoming a European Union member state.

Bulgaria's government has introduced changes to regulations to facilitate the issuing online of identity documents to the country's nationals residing abroad.

On Tuesday, the Montenegrin Interior Ministry signed a 2 million euro contract for an automated fingerprint identification system called  AFIS.

The AFIS system, originally developed by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation for use in criminal cases, will compare nationally issued ID cards and fingerprints with the voters registry. AFIS will be operational within three months.