DUBAI: Dubai Customs seized 1,027 fake documents in 2014. 818 were forged, 24 were altered and 185 were documents used by someone other than the original owner.
Major Gen. Mohammad Al Merri, Director-General of the General Directorate for Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai (GDRFA-Dubai), said that the directorate spares no effort when it comes to ensuring the UAE’s security, as they use the latest technology and uphold international standards at Dubai airport that can detect even the most proficiently forged passports.
In 2014, 47,910 suspicious travel documents were inspected by the Expertise Centre Identity and Fraud Documents (ECIFD) system at Dubai International Airport, while 64,652 documents were inspected in 2013.
Major Gen. Al Merri, added that passport control officers at the airport have had training that enables them to identify forged passports quickly and efficiently.
“We invest in our staff to get good skills. The officer must be able to recognise the security features of any passport in the world,” he said.
Capt Abdullah Mohammad Al Mutawa, Director of ECIFD of the GDRFA-Dubai, said that visitors trying to enter the country using fake identity documents are being easily caught at the airport due to the high-tech passport-reading and biometrics technology system designed to identify fraud.
In 2013, a total of 968 fake documents were caught by ECIFD, of which 765 were forged, 34 were altered and 169 were documents being used by someone other than the original owner, he added.
Capt Al Mutawa explained that people who attempt to enter the country using forged passports are sent back immediately to the country from which they travelled.
He added that although passports and identity documents from all over the world are becoming more and more difficult to copy, criminals try to commit “look-alike fraud”, which involves someone who looks like the original passport-holder and they try to enter the country with that passport.
There is no specific country with the highest rate of passport forgery because criminals do not select any specific country’s passports.
“The centre helps verify the identities of millions of travellers passing through Dubai airport each year,” he said.
He added that the ECIFD stores data on travel documents and identity cards from over 200 countries. It has a library of sample documents and forgeries.
