We’ve
all seen the horror stories coming out of the Syrian conflict - people being
subjected to terrifying ordeals and forced to flee for their lives. Sometimes
their homes are destroyed, other times their family members or neighbours are
murdered and the last thing on their mind at the point of leaving would be to
bring their identity documentation with them. After all, when they escape from
home, they are most likely running to the next street, town or village to take
refuge with family or friends but as we know too well - they may not find any
place of safety until they leave Syria altogether and many of them will never
have left their own country before; so they would have had no reason to ever
have owned a passport. Most unfortunately, their situation is not new. This has
happened before throughout the world`s history to people of many differing
races and religions and this is why our global environment is gradually
becoming more and more multi-cultural - nowhere more evident than in developed
countries where those sensible people in need of food, shelter, safety, health
care, security and work would naturally migrate towards if they are unable to
go home. So, the governments in those more peaceful countries are left with the
difficult task of verifying the identity of these people and allowing them to
become temporary or permanent citizens - perhaps to work, open bank accounts,
obtain medical care or gain access to social services and accommodation -
ensuring that they are duly registered with a unique identity so that they
cannot easily carry out fraudulent or criminal activities and can be traced if
necessary.
The
problem with Arabic surnames in particular is that in the Arabic language they can
only usually be spelled in only one way, but when translated there could be several
possibilities. I will give you an example of how easy it would be for one
person to create multiple identities using Cedar Rose CEO's
name, which is Lebanese, when translated into Latin characters. This is how it
is written on his passport - in English letters:
ANTOUN MASSAAD
In
Arabic letters which as you probably know read from right to left, there are
far less letters. So,
if it were translated letter for letter, it would read like this, which makes
no sense at all:
D-A-S-M
N-O-T-N-A
In the
most commonly used online translation tool, it would come out as "Anton
Massad" therefore missing a letter or two and giving him an entirely new
identity. In Arabic, Antoun is spelled with 5 letters. It can be transliterated
or translated as Antoun, Antony, Anthony, Antoni, Antoine or Anton. Massaad is
spelled with just 4 Arabic letters. Massaad can also be spelled Masaad, Massad,
Masad, Mas`aad, Masard, Massard and so on. The name on Antoun’s Lebanese
passport in Latin characters would depend on how the clerk at the passport
office in Lebanon decided to translate it on that particular day and whether
they had been French educated or English educated. There could therefore
be at
least 36 different ways to spell his name in Latin characters
and he could have 36
different identity documents, for example, all spelled differently in
English but still quite correct when translated back into Arabic. In fact, just
today I saw two brothers on Linked In who have completely different Latin
translations of their Arabic surname even though they both reside in the same
town in Lebanon. One has 7 letters and one has 9, but in Arabic text their name
has just five letters. If they moved to a country which uses the Latin
alphabet, their names would seem totally unrelated.
So,
what can be done to ensure correct identification of individuals with Arabic
names?
The official language in the Middle East is Arabic and
therefore all incorporation and identity documentation is in Arabic. By using
Arabic characters there is only one possible spelling which is why the first
place to start checking the identity of an Arab individual or company is on an
Arabic database with Arabic characters by researchers who speak both Arabic and
English (and preferably French), fluently. Only then, can you be sure you
have the right person to start investigating! At Cedar Rose, we have exactly those resources. We
have created an entire dictionary which gives almost all possible English and
French translations and transliterations of a person’s or a company’s name just
by typing in the Arabic name - so that all combinations will find a match. Likewise,
if the Latin translation of the name is typed in, the one possible Arabic name
will be revealed along with all other possible Latin spellings. We have also
cross-referenced this to our company data - held on over 1 million companies in
the MENA region so that it ties to directorships and shareholdings, senior
management positions, groups of companies, affiliated companies, registration
numbers and so on. That is why our Due Diligence and Database services are
second to none for the MENA region. Our researchers are highly trained, well
qualified and they are local language speakers with excellent French and
English too. We can even conduct Global Compliance Checks on
all possible translations of Arabic names.
Cedar Rose has developed in-house technology capable of
system to system integration using API/ web services and we can transact using
XML (Extensible Mark-Up Language). If you would like to know more, please contact us today.
Please
follow our company page on Linked In to get regular updates.
*****The
above article and the information contained within is intended for public
discussion and informative purposes only. It is not intended as and does not
constitute legal advice*****
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