Suriname seeks Interpol assistance in passports scam in Thailand
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| Published on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 |
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By Ivan Cairo
Caribbean Net New Suriname Correspondent
Email: ivan@caribbeannetnews.com
PARAMARIBO, Suriname: Judicial authorities in Suriname are seeking information from Interpol over the seizure of fake passports including Surinamese travel documents on Friday in Thailand.
Meanwhile, the government will implement stiffer action to prevent misuse of stolen or counterfeit Surinamese passports, said commissioner Krishnakoemarie Hussainali-Mathoera, Head of the Judicial Department of the Suriname Police Corps.
Suriname has called in the assistance of Interpol, the police commissioner said in an invited comment, after the authorities were informed Friday about a bust in Thailand, where police have seized nearly 21,000 fake passports including 2,300 completely faked versions of passports from Suriname, France, Norway, Belgium, Italy and Burma.
“We hope to receive the information very soon, since it is difficult for us to establish whether it was stolen authentic passports which had not been issued yet or whether they were completely fake documents,” said the official.
Meanwhile, the judicial authorities have asked the ministry of Domestic Affairs for the serial numbers of all stolen passports in order to forward this information to Interpol.
“If police and immigration authorities in other countries are not aware that passports presented to them had been stolen, it is very difficult for them to seize these documents,” Hussainali-Mathoera argued.
She also noted that the specific security features in travel documents are important for agencies to detect whether they are fake or not.
In 2004 Suriname introduced CARICOM-compliant, machine readable passport with improved safety features, but there are still a number of valid previously issued passports in circulation. These documents “could easily be tampered with in order to assume a false identity to travel across borders” the US State Department noted on April 30, in its annual Country Reports on Terrorism 2007.
The State Department also referred to “an unknown number of blank old-style passports” which remained unaccounted for. According to Hussainali-Mathoera, the serial numbers of these documents are currently being forwarded to Interpol.
According to Thai authorities, during the bust on Friday twelve suspects have been arrested and have been charged with falsifying official documents, possession of counterfeit documents, and trafficking in drugs and weapons. The gang is accused of providing false documents to clients in South Asia and Africa, said commander of immigration police Lieutenant General Chatchawal Suksomjit. | | | | Reads : 609 | | | |
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