1.5m ID cards distributed in six months

Abu Dhabi:  At least 1.5 million Emirates ID cards were distributed during the last six months of 2011, the Emirates Identity Authority (EIDA) said on Saturday.

These were part of the 1.78 million ID cards that had been handed over to courier companies for delivery over the same period of time.

Around 280,000 cards had not been received by their owners over the past six months — 130,000 of which had been pending with the courier companies for more than 60 days, despite notifications to the card holders. EIDA has decided to dispose of all cards that are not received by their owners after 30 days of notification.

The authority also commended the efforts of courier companies in delivering huge numbers of cards to the owners.