Malaysia is one of Asia's biggest employers of foreign labour. But recently, cases of deaths, abuse and forced labour have come to light. What is going on? Who is protecting these migrant workers?
The National Registration Department and the Immigration Department became
the first to set up this link yesterday, with the signing of agreements between
their parent ministry, Home Affairs, and Multimedia Glory Sdn Bhd, the developer
of the biometric security system.
<p>Home Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Radzi Sheikh Ahmad said the government intended
to consolidate data-sharing between relevant agencies using a single online
platform which can handle biometric information, like fingerprints.</p>
<p>He said issuance of passports would be easier as Immigration officers could
extract the applicant’s data and thumbprint from the NRD database.</p>
<p>"NRD and Immigration are spearheading this change in the government. We
can know in real-time about a tourist’s arrival up to the second he checked
in at Immigration. We can even access the information on the handphone."</p>
<p>The system will also store information on deported illegal immigrants, including
fingerprints and photos.</p>
<p>Radzi was speaking after the signing ceremony and launch of the Karsof Biometric
Technology for Border Security system, which Immigration has used on a limited
basis for the past year.</p>
<p>It has been used to record thumbprints of Bangladeshi workers upon their applications
in Dhaka, and transferred to Immigration here for cross-checking upon their
arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.</p>
<p>"Illegals may try to enter using forged passports and other documents,
but with biometric information, we can identify them," Radzi said.</p>
<p>The system will gradually be installed in all the other foreign worker source
countries.</p>
<p>The Karsof system is locally developed by Multimedia Glory, which has successfully
patented some of its other biometric security, management and tracking systems.</p>
<p>Radzi also launched new immigration identity cards for foreigners, which come
in different colours to denote sectors like agriculture and plantation workers,
expatriates, students and participants of the My Second Home programme.</p>
<p>The cards will be introduced next year.
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