PUTRAJAYA: Only 89 cases of forged Malaysian passports were recorded last year and the incidents were "extremely small" compared to the 1.2 million passports issued in 2008.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said this proved that such cases were isolated and in any case, forged passports could easily be detected by the Immigration authorities.
"Passport forgery is not exclusive to Malaysia. There have been incidents of forgery reported on passports issued by the United States, Canada, Japan, Britain and Australia.
"However, because of the sophisticated security system and features we have placed in our passports, it is easy to detect the forged documents," he told a press conference yesterday.
Syed Hamid added that last year, the authorities recorded 64 cases of foreigners who attempted to enter the country by using forged passports issued by other countries.
He said the governments of the United States and the Netherlands have been provided with special machines which could read the chip embedded into Malaysian passports and this has enabled the authorities in both countries to determine the authenticity of the travelling document.
He added that efforts were also under way to meet the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standards for the passports to be Read-all Reader machine-friendly. Several countries are using this machine.
"The fact that Malaysians can travel to many countries without having to apply for visa is also a reason why our passport is popular," he said.
The minister also refuted a recent statement blaming the speedy issuance of passports for making the document susceptible to forgery.
Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Rais Yatim was quoted as saying that the issuance of passports in less than two hours had made it easier for international syndicates to forge the documents.
"I urge foreign governments not to be unduly worried because we are constantly monitoring the situation and we do not take such cases lightly," Syed Hamid said. -The Star/Asia News Network
