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Malaysia to employ facial and retina recognition technologies to fight use of fake travel documents

JOHOR BARU — Malaysia’s Immigration Department is looking to employ the use of facial and retina recognition systems to combat falsified Visit Pass-Temporary Employment (PLKS) or fake passports used by foreign workers.

Malaysian Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed, seen here with constituents in Taman Perling, said on Wednesday (Oct 18) that the new recognition systems will work together with the biometric devices that are currently in use.

Malaysian Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed, seen here with constituents in Taman Perling, said on Wednesday (Oct 18) that the new recognition systems will work together with the biometric devices that are currently in use.

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JOHOR BARU — The Malaysian authorities are mulling the use of facial and retina recognition systems to weed out falsified employment passes and passports used by foreign workers.

Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed said that these new recognition systems will work together with existing biometric devices.

“We are working on their introduction in stages, and the digital identity detection programme (of which these new technologies are part of) is expected to be fully implemented by 2021,” he said after a community programme in Johor’s Taman Perling on Wednesday (Oct 18).

Fake temporary employment visit passes and passports offered by syndicates are popular among foreign migrant workers in Malaysia. Of late, syndicates have been used by employers via agents to gain fake documents for their foreign workers for as low as RM1,500 (S$480). It is learnt that such documents can be easily forged with modern digital copying equipment.

Mr Nur Jazlan noted that the ministry was aware of such syndicates as their activity has been ongoing for a while.

“The Immigration Department will strengthen its current surveillance and enforcement techniques to detect and cripple such organisations,” he said, adding that the new facial and retina recognition devices will contribute to this effort.

In December 2016, Malaysian immigration authorities announced that 300 facial recognition devices will be placed at key entry points by the end of this year. In addition, Immigration Director-General Mustafar Ali said last month that retina recognition technology is being mulled for the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Malaysia has around 2.3 million legal foreign workers, besides the estimated 2 million illegal foreign ones. They are hired to work in “3D” — dirty, difficult and dangerous — jobs shunned by Malaysians. Putrajaya’s plan to bring in more migrant workers has been opposed, with some saying the government should register the existing illegal workers so that they can be absorbed into the workforce.

On scams that use the Voice Over Internet Protocol to replicate police station phone numbers, Mr Nur Jazlan urged members of the public to be on the alert.

“They must always double-check with the police when in doubt as the scam syndicates prey on human weaknesses.”

Mr Nur Jazlan said in most cases, the victim will only notice that he or she has been scammed after they have transferred their money. AGENCIES

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