The Malaysian human rights commissioner, James Nayagam, said refugees would be fingerprinted in a program to document all foreign workers in the country. The move to include refugees carrying UNHCR cards had not been officially announced.
The special treatment, particularly the legal right to work, granted to the 800 boat asylum seekers to come from Australia under the Malaysia swap agreement, has been described as unfair by Burmese refugees already in Malaysia.
Mr Nayam told the Herald the amendments to the biometric scheme were made on Tuesday.
''They are extending it to refugees as well,'' he said. ''With this paper they cannot be detained. All these people now have the opportunity to be legalised workers.''
The commission's vice- chairwoman, Professor Khaw Lake Tee, said the move had nothing to do with the refugee swap. But Irene Fernandez, the executive director of the Malaysian refugee rights group Tenaganita, was sceptical the system would work. She said illegal workers would have to pay a fee to be registered and another to gain a work permit that employers might refuse to pay because it was too costly.