By FLORENCE A. SAMY
newsdesk@thestar.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: A biometric system to monitor foreign workers in the country is expected to be in place by October, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammu-ddin Hussein.

He said once the system had been implemented, foreign workers would be tracked via a database and have their thumbprints recorded to prevent them from abusing their visas and ensure that they were in the country legally.

“One of our concerns is that foreign workers who arrive here with a legal working permit end up overstaying after it expires. We hope to have the system in place by October,” he said after launching the “30-hour Famine Countdown 2010” to aid the poor at Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil here yesterday.

“Employers will be held accountable as they are benefiting from the foreign workers. It is their responsibility to report to the authorities if their workers abscond.”

Hishammuddin warned those seeking to take advantage of the system to “think twice” as the biometric database would be comprehensive and involving 14 ministries.

“Once this is in place, we will make sure no one is above the system,” he added.

The database, he said, would also have details of workers who forged their documents as well as those who entered as “tourists” but ended up working illegally,

Hishammuddin said those who overstayed might risk being blacklisted in the future, adding that the Government was currently studying the list of actions.

However, he added flexibility would be given to sectors that were needed to make the country’s New Economic Model a success.

On the amnesty for illegal immigrants, Hishammuddin declined to reveal the date but told the illegals to be prepared.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/8/23/nation/6902799&sec=nation