WE REFER to the letter by Mr Nelson Quah, "Use eye or DNA identification at immigration checkpoints" (my paper, Nov 13).

The use of finger print recognition technology for automated immigration clearance is a proven, reliable system used by many authorities worldwide.

More importantly, for Singapore, travellers can use the automated facility as long as their fingerprints are already registered with the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA), without having to separately enrol their biometrics.

However, ICA recognises that this form of automated clearance may not be suitable for less than 1 per cent of eligible travellers.

People with excessively wet or dry fingerprints, and the elderly, whose fingerprints are fading, may experience difficulties using the system.

As an accurate match is necessary for positive identification, the scanned fingerprints must meet minimum technical and security requirements.

Hence, officers performing secondary checks have been guiding users who encounter such problems to clear immigration at manned counters.

If the quality of the records of a traveller's fingerprint does not meet requirements, we will endeavour to record a better set.

Should a traveller's fingerprints be unsuitable for use in automated clearance, we will advise him to use the manual counters in future.

This was what happened in Mrs Quah's case when she used the Enhanced Immigration Automated Clearance System at Tuas Checkpoint on Oct 30.

We thank Mr Quah for his suggestion to use eye- or DNA-recognition technology. We had explored them previously before deciding on the use of fingerprints.

Presently, it is not feasible for ICA to introduce an additional or separate system using such biometrics for automated clearance, as travellers would have to be pre-registered before they can use the system.

MS CHIA HUI KENG
HEAD, PUBLIC & INTERNAL
COMMUNICATIONS BRANCH
CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS
DIVISION
IMMIGRATION & CHECKPOINTS
AUTHORITY

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