Travelling through Tuas and Woodlands checkpoint by car? You will soon be asked to hop off the car and scan your thumbprints.
This applies to both outgoing and incoming travellers who are aged 6 years and above.
The Immigrant Checkpoint Authority (ICA) said fingerprints scanners have been installed at all car counters.
However, only a few counters will be using these scanners for the time being to allow passengers to familiarise themselves with the process.
With 400,000 people leaving and entering Singapore everyday, this BioScreen security aims to beef up the border security at land checkpoints.
This extra layer of security will help detect people with “adverse records” such as those who use fake identities to enter the country.
Apparently, in 2015, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) already said borders, infrastructure and intelligence capabilities will be strengthened.
Last year, new laws were passed to allow the Government to scan the eyes of Singaporeans and PRs to collect their iris images – these will be rolled out within the next two years.
Personal identifiers such as photographers, iris images and fingerprints will help to strengthen identity verification at immigration checkpoints.
While some travellers appreciate the need to tighten the security, their main gripe is that it will worsen the traffic jam at the checkpoints.
Several travellers also believe that it will create inconvenience to the elderly and the disabled. They suggested for ICA to provide a special lane for cars with appropriate handicap labels or a portable thumbprint scanner to increase the productivity.
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