The allegation that the government is making money off the new biometric scanning system for the 6P amnesty programme for foreign workers is “ridiculous”, said Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein.

azlan He refused to respond further to the claim , raised late last month by prominent workers’ rights NGO Tenaganita.

Hishammuddin said this is merely a ploy by the opposition which is gearing up for the general election.

“I think the opposition feels there’s going to be a general election soon,” he told a press conference after chairing a meeting with national and state Immigration Department directors today.

“I told my officers in KDN (Home Ministry) that everything that we do from now on will be politicised, so we have to ready to answer all the issues factually, be transparent in what we do, and that there will be many more allegations we have to be prepared for.

“In this sort of situation, whatever you answer will be spun in a way that is politically prejudiced... I don’t think it’s even worth answering that question.”

NONE Late last month, Tenaganita executive director Irene Fernandez had queried the government’s “sudden rush” to introduce the biometric scanning system, which she said raises further questions about the identity of the 300 agents appointed to carry out the exercise.

She argued that the timing of the mysterious appointments and allegedly questionable behaviour of the companies, on top of the timing of the exercise, indicate that a general election is looming - and that this justifies questions as to whether or not this is merely a “fund-raising exercise” for the ruling BN.

Irene also debated the effectiveness of the biometric scanning system, saying it would only solve the issue of effective identification of foreign workers but not the root causes of problems surrounding foreign labour.

Hisham: Biometric tampering 'only on small scale'

1.9mil foreign workers, illegals registered