Joint winner of the Best New Passport Award was Bahrain’s Ministry of the Interior (Nationality, Passport and Residence Affairs) for the new Bahrain ePassport,  which has already won international acclaim, winning a Gold Badge at the London Design Awards. The design came out of HID’s UK office, marking a significant milestone for Bahrain as it transitioned from a machine-readable passport to an electronic format.
Featuring ten distinct visa page designs, each page highlights different facets of Bahrain’s culture and history, present and future, such as its marine life and Formula One racing. It is also purported to be the world’s first passport to incorporate a hashtag, #teambahrain, reflecting a contemporary approach to national identity.

Bahrain ePassport © Nationality, Passports & Residence Affairs.

The ePassport, supported by HID’s chip operating system SOMA™ and HID Integrale™, will store biometric and biographic data, enhancing overall security and convenience for citizens and aligning Bahrain with the ICAO’s Public Key Directory (PKD) group.