Biometric verification introduced for foreign worker health screening in Malaysia

Mar 17, 2019, 4:57 pm EDT | Stephen Mayhew

Malaysia’s Foreign Workers Medical Examination Monitoring Agency (Fomema) said that the foreign worker health screening biometric system, designed to address issues of identity theft, will be fully implemented by April, Malay Mail reports.

Fomema was appointed by the government to manage, monitor and supervise a mandatory comprehensive health and medical screening program for all foreign workers employed in Malaysia.

The roll out of the biometric fingerprint verification system will begin this month. Participating medical clinics have been supplied with fingerprint readers which will complement the existing foreign worker recognition system which is based on facial recognition using their passport photo.

“At the panel clinic and X-ray centres, the identity of a foreign worker will be first checked based on their original passport and information in Fomema medical examination forms,” Fomema noted in a statement. “If the fingerprint verification is required, the clinic will scan the fingerprint using the biometric fingerprint reader and send it online to the Immigration Department of Malaysia database for identification. Only foreign workers with confirmed matching fingerprint may continue with the medical examination.”

In January the State of Penang launched the first public facial recognition system in Malaysia to the CCTV network on Penang Island to help police track down wanted criminals and reduce crime.