Indonesia launches new biometric screening system at borders

05:55 AM Mar 24, 2010

Indonesia's immigration department yesterday rolled out a new biometric system to screen visitors arriving at 27 of its air and sea ports. Facial images and fingerprints will be captured to verify the identity of travellers, according to a press release by air transport firm Sita, which is installing the systems.

"We can now be confident that people match passports," said Mr Erwin Azis, director of Information Systems at the immigration department, or Imigrasi.

The system has been put in place at the Adisucipto International Airport in Yogyakarta, and will be installed at the remaining ports by June.