Malaysia adopts biometric system to identify healthy foreign workers

Beginning this October, only foreign workers with fingerprints recorded under the biometric system are allowed to proceed with health screening before getting employment; as reported in Bernama.

In the report, immigration director-general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali explained that it was to verify their identity before the health screening. This is aimed to restrict the spread of infectious diseases in the country.

Speaking to reporters at an event yesterday (1 Aug), he commented: “This system has been implemented before but its implementation is not comprehensive at the Fomema clinics.”

Mustafar noted that there were several cases of foreign workers who used other individuals for health screening purposes. He said: “The number of cases is small but we do not want to compromise in this matter as we only want healthy workers employed in our country.”

He further revealed that a total of 407,870 foreign workers underwent health screening within the first six months of this year and 10,618 (2.6%) of them failed the test with the majority involving cases of tuberculosis, hepatitis B and sexually-transmitted diseases. 

Among the highest number of workers who did not pass the health screening were those from Indonesia, Nepal and Bangladesh, said Mustafar. He added that those who failed the screening would soon be repatriated to their respective countries.

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