Al Jazeera’s English network has exposed a glaring error in the border security of virtually all western nations. Apologies as they do not seem to have their act together to provide lifts from the interviews in their English coverage but I will do the best to paraphrase the interview.
A-J’s Stephen Cole (formerly BBC) interviewed the Head of Interpol including about a database of stolen and lost passports. During it he revealed that only two countries use the database and only one on a full basis. You will not doubt realise that is not the USA.
The two countries to actually consult the Interpol database – to which most countries in the organisation submit data – are France and Switzerland. France only uses the system at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport but Switzerland consults it at every border control point.
The Swiss get about 100 hits a month picking up people who are using stolen or lost passports to try to cross their borders. This is of course indicative that their is a potentially huge number of people regularly travelling on illegal documentation who are not being caught by other countries. Others have pointed out that the so-called secure data now being incorporated in the “biometric” passports can be duplicated or changed using technology not dissimilar to that used to clone credit cards. Even without these changes, entry can be gained at ports and airports which do not have the necessary technology to collect the biometric readings from the person wanting entry and compare them to the passport data.
This also points out the futility of the Republican security walls they want to line the US borders with. If you are a terrorist, why bother with trying illegal entry when it seems you can use a stolen passport with impunity.
