Palau, DR advance biometric passport initiatives

The Pacific island nation of Palau has officially launched its electronic passport project with the help of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and US$4.5 million in funding from the government of Japan.

The planned machine-readable passports (e-MRP) will contain embedded chips with biometric data. In addition to new physical documents, the archipelago of over 500 islands also plans to update and digitize its passport application and issuance system.

The three-year project will focus on three key areas, including introducing new regulations on electronic data collection and management, data privacy and biometric use. Other parts of the initiative include business model assessments for implementing the e-MRP system as well as IT solutions procurement. The initiative is led by the Ministry of State and the Ministry of Finance.

The Caribbean country of the Dominican Republic is also attempting to ensure its citizens gain access to biometric passports.

The General Directorate of Passports (DGP) announced it has developed a strategy for modernizing infrastructure and processes and integrating the newest technology for document issuance. The agency currently has 15 offices across its territory on the island of Hispaniola and is planning to expand to 22 more locations, according to Dominican Today.

The strategy also includes  a secure data center, and a specialized vault for notebook storage, according to DGP’s General Director Lorenzo David Ramírez.

“The electronic passport is an urgent need for our country,” says Ramírez. “Not only will it provide greater security to citizens, but it will allow for more agile recognition in migration systems worldwide.”

India struggles with fake passports, Aadhaar cards

Indian authorities are struggling to crack down on passport rackets, which provide fake documents and multiple identities to both criminals and illegal migrants.

Last year, for instance, the police in the country’s capital of Delhi arrested 23 agents for supplying forged documents. However, the number of arrests fades compared to the magnitude of problems, according to an investigation from The Print citing anonymous government and police force insiders.

The issue stems from a combination of factors, including the lack of checks and balances and loopholes in the system, including the biometric-based Aadhaar identity number. When a person applies for a passport with their Aadhaar, the number and the biometrics are validated through the Aadhaar database managed by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). The agency, however, does not share Aadhaar photographs with passport authorities.

“The government collects passport and Aadhaar data,” an unnamed police officer told the media outlet. “But there is no integration and hardly any checks at immigration to detect irregularities unless someone has been flagged or identified due to their accent, disguise, or evidently forged or tampered documents. Even with access to the centralized system, 99 percent of the time, criminals bypass all checks.”

Agents that provide forged Aadhaar and PAN cards, or permanent account numbers provided by the Indian Income Tax Department, collect stolen or bought IDs and proofs of address, including bank passbooks or electricity bills. Original Aadhaar and PAN cards are used under a new identity, making them difficult to detect.

“There is no system in place to compare and double-check Aadhaar biometrics with the passport data. The data for both Aadhaar and passport is held in separate databases,” according to a Regional Passport Office official.

Other documents are also being forged, including address proof, identity proof and proof of date of birth. A forged Aadhaar cards can be bought for as little as 160 rupees (US$1.83), a bank account details are sold for 10,000 rupees ($114.5) and above, while a passport costs between 150,000 and 300,000 rupees ($1718 to $3436).

Under the country’s plan to reform passport issuance, the Passport Seva Programme V2.0, the government is planning to integrate various databases and stakeholders, overhaul processes and introduce strict access controls across the system.

The strategy also includes rolling out microchip-embedded passports with biometric and biographic information. The Programme is already functional in Bhubaneshwar and Nagpur.

The country, however, still has to deal with the lack of coordination and real-time data sharing between departments maintaining databases of birth certificates and other vital information.

Article Topics

biometric passport  |  biometrics  |  digital ID  |  Dominican Republic  |  India  |  Palau  |  travel documents