KUALA LUMPUR, April 25 — Biometric fingerprint screening of foreign workers to overcome the problem of false identities is expected to be fully implemented throughout the country by year-end, according the Foreign Workers Medical Examination Monitoring Agency (Fomema).

Its chief executive officer and president Datuk Mohd Hatar Ismail said the system was an improvement to assist more than 2,000 panel clinics and X-ray centres ensure that impostors would not be able to "beat the system”.

He said some of the Fomema panel clinics were currently in the process of upgrading their computer systems to adapt to the biometric system.

"There are several stages to the system and everything is proceeding smoothly, it is just that we need complete data to be upgraded in the immigration system, Insya-Allah (God willing) we expect to go  ‘live’ by the end of this year,” he said in an interview with Bernama News Channel (channel  Astro 502) at Wisma Bernama here last night.

Fomema is the only agency authorised to do health screening of foreign workers in the country. — Bernama