From June 2016, visitors to Singapore will have their fingerprints scanned.

The increase in terrorist attacks happening around the world has caused many countries to tighten security. As a major transportation hub in Asia, Singapore will conduct fingerprint scanning for people entering the country.

Visitors to the Lion City from June this year will have to have their fingerprints scanned and their fingerprints recorded in Singapore’s system, the information was posted on January 27.

According to Mr. Desmond Lee, Minister of Home Affairs, the fingerprint scanning is seen as a move to strengthen national security while many countries in the Southeast Asian region are facing terrorist threats.

Therefore, controlling people entering the country at checkpoints will help Singapore authorities verify the identity of visitors before they enter the island nation.

According to Mr Lee, an estimated 1,000 Southeast Asians have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight for the Islamic State, including suicide bombers. As a major transport hub in the region, Singapore cannot be immune to this threat.

Mr Lee cited the Woodlands immigration checkpoint as the busiest in the world, as it regularly handles travelers arriving by road or rail from neighboring Malaysia.

As a key commercial hub, Singapore holds an important position in the trade between Southeast Asian countries and is open to the world to attract foreigners to work, so security needs to be tightened. While these measures have been implemented in countries such as Japan and South Korea.

According to the latest data from the Singapore Tourism Board, the largest source of tourists to Singapore was from Indonesia with 3 million people in 2014, followed by China with 1.7 million people and Malaysia with 1.2 million people.

According to Dantri