A senior official at the Passport Office said on Tuesday that by the end of the year, his department should have in place new technology that would assist authorities in detecting fraudulent Bahamian passports.
Itﾴs a part of a new initiative aimed at satisfying international regulations for identifying and tracking persons who may use the identity of others to evade law enforcement officials, while also assisting authorities in putting a stop to illegal passport rings in The Bahamas.
According to Clifford Scavella, acting chief passport officer, biometrics, which is an international passport detection feature, would allow authorities to add essential information like thumb prints and facial features.
The biometric system places various electronic barcodes on a passport that contain information about its owner. Simply swiping a passport accesses this information.
“Gone are the days when individuals can simply remove a photo and put a new photo in its place and assume they could go undetected through border crossings,” Mr. Scavella said.
“Now the information must also check. The world has come to a point where it is becoming more sophisticated and itﾴs more difficult for persons to forge documents.”
Mr. Scavella said that Bahamian passports are very valuable commodities in that The Bahamas has stability, prosperity, and progress.
He said that people are also attracted to The Bahamas and its passports because of its proximity to the United States.
Until the new system comes online, authorities will rely on traditional techniques of detecting fraudulent documents.
Chief Superintendent of Police Hulan Hanna said traditional methods of detecting fraudulent passports, though primitive, have proven to be effective in the past.
He said although there has not been a significant increase in fraudulent documents, detection has become more difficult because of the techniques that criminals are using.
“We do know that the technology has made it more sophisticated in terms of persons duplicating documents so we have tried to put systems in place to [improve detection],” he said.
“We do know also that with the increasing occurrence of cyber crimes, we also need to become more knowledgeable in our response and certainly in legislation of these types of activities.”
He said that the present system of detecting forged passports involves the sharing of information between various government departments.
Just a few days ago, a Jamaican national was fined $3,000 and deported after pleading guilty to possession of a forged passport.
The issue was pushed to the forefront months ago when certain officials from the Passport Office were prosecuted for their part in an alleged illegal passport scandal.
Perez Clarke, The Bahama Journal
