Boarding pass swap raises safety concerns

Mumbai: Passport and visa forgery have become common crimes these days, but cases of boarding pass exchange have seldom been highlighted at airports.
In one such case recently, a Chennai-bound passenger swapped his boarding pass and passport with a Swiss national, who was apparently taking a flight to Paris.
While the Chennai-bound passenger, a Sri Lankan national, was intercepted at the airport on grounds of suspicious behaviour on November 1, the Swiss passenger managed to leave the city and had been absconding since then.
"The Swiss national cleared immigration saying he was headed for Paris, while the Sri Lankan pretended to be a domestic passenger,'' said senior police inspector Dilip Patil. "They met in the mezzanine-floor security hold after clearing all security checks and exchanged the passes and passports. In fact, the French passport the Swiss national had given to the Chennai-bound passenger also turned out to be bogus,'' he added.
The police said such ploys were generally used by Sri Lankan nationals__to go abroad illegally__who ask for refugee status if caught by immigration officials in foreign countries.
"If a Sri Lankan national gets caught, he/she surrenders and then asks for asylum and refugee status, citing the strife in their country as a reason for the illegal transit. They usually look to get into the US or European countries where human rights laws are more favourable,'' he added.
Unlike many international airports abroad, Mumbai does not have a biometric security system
, which checks a passenger on the basis of fingerprints or retinal scan. Though the installation of a biometric system has been on the cards for long, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) is yet to recommend the technology that will be used in India. The agency conducted a meeting with representatives of all Indian airports last month to zero in on the requirements.
25/11/08 Chinmayi Shalya/Times of India

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Airports Nov 2008, Foreign Nov 2008, Safety Nov 2008