Singapore to scan fingerprints of visitors from June

Singapore: Singapore on Wednesday said that all travelers entering the country by land, air or sea will have their fingerprints taken from June as part of plans to step up border security in the wake of rising terror threat.

The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority will be taking the fingerprints of anyone who enters Singapore at its air, land and sea checkpoints, senior minister of state for home affairs Desmond Lee told Parliament on Wednesday.

The fingerprint scans will allow the immigration authorities to verify the traveler's identity before he is allowed entry into Singapore and will facilitate automated self-clearance during his departure, Lee said.

The additional biometric screening across the city state's checkpoints comes in the wake of heightened terror threat to ensure that Singapore does not fall prey to terrorist attacks, the Straits Times reported.

More than half a million people pass through Singapore's checkpoints every day, with the Woodlands checkpoint, linking to peninsular Malaysia at the southern tip, being the busiest land checkpoint in the world, Lee said.

"Attackers can gather and plan just outside Singapore before coming into Singapore to carry out the attack," Lee was quoted as saying by the daily.

"Border control is therefore our first line of defence to prevent an attack from taking place in Singapore," he added. At least three countries scan the fingerprints of visitors. The United States started doing so in 2004 after the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001. Japan, South Korea and Taiwan also introduced fingerprint scans in 2007.

The prosperous city state is also a major transit point for Asia, where a number of countries have recently reported increasing threats from Islamic State and related terror groups.