Home Affairs Minister Terry Lister has confirmed Government is thinking about introducing AIDS tests for expatriates and wallet-sized work permits to help immigration when they raid jobs sites.

Both ideas were brought up in the House of Assembly on Wednesday by Government backbencher Derrick Burgess.

Yesterday Mr. Lister told The Royal Gazette his ministry had written to the Health Ministry to get them to check if AIDS tests were required of foreigners moving to other countries.

He said: "For many, many years we required everyone to have chest x-rays for TB. It exists in some places but not very many.

"To be concerned about TB and not be concerned about the other thing is silly. That's why we reacted. If TB is no longer a big problem but AIDS is we should be doing something."

He said tests would be done before the person entered the country but he said the long incubation period of AIDS threw up complications.

"What we will do is follow the lead of the Health Ministry, if they come back and say no one in the world is doing it, then fine. If they say many countries in the world are taking this approach they we will sit down and look at it more closely."

Asked if Government was considering annual tests Mr. Lister said: "I don't know. I don't want to prejudice anything before the information comes back."

Opposition Home Affairs spokeswoman Patricia Gordon-Pamplin backed the idea of testing of expatriates saying it was important not to bring AIDS into the country.

She said: "We need to keep it contained within Bermuda, I don't think that is going overboard."

As AIDS had an incubation period it might mean getting a test before the person arrived and a bit later, said Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin.

Mr. Lister said Government was not planning to introduce identity cards for expats.

He said: "There's a feeling that ID cards would be just terrible thing. We don't wish to have identity cards.

"But it makes a lot of sense to have something in the wallet for checking on job sites."