New passport to help combat human trafficking

A new national passport has been introduced in Kyrgyzstan in a move to fight human trafficking and organised crime. The new travel document offers greater protection against forgery and is compatible with international standards, according to a migration official. "The new passport has sufficient levels of protection [against forgery]. It is not filled in by hand, as was the case before. It also has a digital photo, making it impossible to stick in someone else's photo," Bermet Moldobaeva, a programme coordinator for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Kyrgyzstan, told IRIN from the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek. The current national passport is filled in by hand, which prompts some border officials to scrutinise the document, especially if the handwriting is not clear. "It is a real hassle for me to travel with my passport because whenever I arrive in Moscow airport the border officials spend a certain amount of time checking my document, which was filled in with bad handwriting," Asylbek, a Kyrgyz national working in the Turkish capital, Ankara, told IRIN. Their comments followed a recent presentation of the new travel document in Bishkek. During the presentation Kyrgyz President Askar Akaev said: "The creation of a new national identity document is a major step in strengthening state security, which testifies to the active participation of the Kyrgyz Republic in international efforts to build peace and combat international terrorism, trafficking in human beings and other organised crime." The old Kyrgyz passport is not in compliance with international standards, a fact the authorities feel could contribute to human trafficking and terrorist activities, and threaten national security. There have been some unconfirmed reports that human traffickers fly their Uzbek and Tajik victims via the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh to the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and other countries using forged Kyrgyz passports, something deemed impossible with the use of new travel documents, experts say. "It will be impossible to forge the new passport because the latest technology was used, [including] several layers of seal, a special dye, personal data imprinted on laminated covering, etc," Moldobaeva said. Produced by the Moldovan company Registru, the new passports are designed according to standards laid down by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). Each will contain an identity number printed on the biographical data page and repeated on all pages by laser; a machine-readable code; a digital photographic image of the holder; and special paper with watermarks, which contain fluorescent fibres only visible by ultraviolet light. Meanwhile, the national passport issuing system has changed. Under the new regulations, there is now a special centre for issuing the documents. Units that formerly issued passports cannot do so anymore. They can only gather passport applications from the population and send them to the new centre. There this information will be checked and then put into the database storing all the necessary information. Moreover, in an effort to ensure better border control, border crossing points are set to be connected with this database. "If people crossing the border present this new passport it will be checked with the data stored in the database. Thus, the receiver of that passport and the person who presents the document at the point will be checked. So, even if someone has somehow forged the new passport he will be detected at the border because there will be a photo of the initial holder of the passport in the database," Moldobaeva explained. According to the Kyrgyz government agency for information technology, citizens can apply for the new travel document from 12 August. The IOM has provided a US $1.6 million grant funded by the US State Department's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) to help develop the new passport infrastructure in the country.