Video Fake Passport Industry Sophisticated, Says Thai Interpol

Thai Interpol says the network for fake passports is vast, and they could use a better linked database to detect fraud more efficiently.

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Stolen passports used by two passengers on a missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 sparked a concern over security lapses in aiports.

Thai Interpol says the network for fake passports is complicated, and advanced integration among security organisations is necessary to prevent transnational crimes.

With huge numbers of visitors and patchy law enforcement, Thailand has a booming black market for fake identity documents, and it was here that the two passengers on MH370 were apparently able to get hold of stolen passports.

Thai authorities struggle to track thousands of lost or stolen passports each year.

Some are known to be sold through syndicates to drug traffickers. Others are suspected to have ended up in the hands of Islamist militants.

The Chief of Interpol Thailand said the underground network for counterfeit documents has been developed to an advanced degree.

"They will co-ordinate by e-mail earlier, and then there will be a middleman to arrange (the passports), depending on what the clients want, and how they want it," said Police Major General Apichat Suriboonya, Head of Interpol National Central Bureau Thailand.

He said sometimes documents are sold by their owners to cover travel costs, passed on to the middleman, Thai or foreign, who work with criminal networks.

The passports may be altered, for example with a new photograph, but sometimes the fraudulent user hopes to pass as the real owner.

He said police need to catch up with new criminal techniques.

"Criminals use very advanced technology to produce fake passports which look very neat. This is our big problem." Apichat said.

Interpol's stolen and lost travel documents (SLTD) database contains 40 million records from 167 countries but its secretary general, Ronald Noble, says not enough countries are using it.

As the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) aims to launch an integrated economic community by 2015, Apichat said all countries should widen there databases to prevent transnational crimes.

"If we can link our local program with the Interpol system, it would help a lot. If we can just swipe a passport and it can automatically be checked with a worldwide database, we will have a good security system when the AEC (ASEAN Economic Community) is introduced to the country," said Apichat.

Thai Immigration said 500 tourists were arrested for using fake passports in 2012, while 200 were arrested in 2013.

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