News:Turkey hosts INTERPOL training on fake document detection

15 April 2016

ANKARA, Turkey – Enhancing border security through the detection of fake documents was the focus of an INTERPOL training course held in Turkey this week.

With fraudulent travel documents often used by terrorists and criminals ̶ especially human traffickers and people smugglers ̶ to evade detection, the three-day (12-14 April) course included practical exercises to develop the technical skills needed to spot forged passports and other IDs.

Participants were also updated on INTERPOL’s support to member countries in identifying and interdicting foreign terrorist fighters travelling to and from conflict zones, including through the use of its wanted persons and Stolen and Lost Travel Documents (SLTD) databases.

Containing more than 57 million records from 172 countries, the SLTD database also holds details of some 250,000 stolen and lost Syrian and Iraqi passports, of which more than 190,000 were reported stolen as blank.

Among those is the Syrian passport found at the Stade de France following the attempted suicide bombing during the November 2015 Paris attacks, which had been recorded in the SLTD database in April 2014 as part of a batch of 1,452 stolen blank passports.

“Ensuring that frontline officers, such as border and immigration officials, and forensic document examiners have the skills and access to the information they need is essential to prevent the fraudulent use of travel documents which is often linked to more serious crimes,” said Rafet Ufuk Önder, Head of the INTERPOL National Central Bureau in Ankara.

The SLTD database is just one platform available to help law enforcement officials identify if a person is travelling on a fake document; other capabilities include Dial-Doc (Digital INTERPOL Alert Library – Document).

Launched by INTERPOL and the G8 in 2013, Dial-Doc makes it easy for officials in any of INTERPOL’s 190 member countries to check if a travel document is fake, through comparison with images of recently detected counterfeit documents provided by countries worldwide.

In addition, the Edison database, also accessible through INTERPOL’s secure global communications network, allows frontline officers to access detailed examples of genuine travel documents, in order to detect fakes.

Participants from border control, immigration, forensic document laboratories, financial and organized crime units from four countries – Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran and Turkey – took part in the training delivered by INTERPOL’s Counterfeit and Security Documents (CCSD) Branch, supported by the terrorist networks and vulnerable communities units.