Malaysia to start fingerprinting visitors

Foreigners entering and leaving the country will have both index fingers scanned at Immigration checkpoints beginning next month (New Straits Times)

The procedure is a new security feature to curb transboundary crime and terrorism.

Called the biometric fingerprint security system, it is aimed at enhancing security in the immigration clearance process, which currently involves only the stamping of passports and matching photographs in the passports to faces.

And Also:
Malaysia to start fingerprint check of foreigners (Press Trust of India)

Immigration officials said that with rampant forgery of travel documents nowadays, the biometric system would allay this worry.
Immigration Department director general Mr Alias Ahmad said such a security measure was deemed necessary in view of the increasing number of foreigners who had abused their privileges as visitors.

It is commonly assumed that governments implement biometric ID management techniques in some Orwellian effort to control people. But governments have obligations to their citizens and to neighboring countries. They have a duty to their citizens to prevent their victimization by those who would do them harm and they have a duty to neighboring countries not to provide a safe haven for those who would victimize citizens of neighboring countries.

Malaysia's strategic location abutting some of the world's most important sea trade routes subjects it to risks that it has an obligation to address (see: Don’t mess with Malaysia, human traffickers warned (The Star)). Biometric technologies can help countries develop the efficient and needed law enforcement mechanisms that other countries spent much more time and money to implement.

Malaysia (CIA World Factbook)