Originally Posted by
duniawala
In this Malaysian airline tragedy (I cling to the remote hope that everything is OK), it came out that 2 pax were traveling on stolen passports. I find that incredible that in this day and age, with machine readable passports and immigration checkpoints (outbound) that these were not detected. My question is a) Aren't these stolen passports reported to all countries and b) If they are, why couldn't the immigration catch these. I would think that given terrorist activities around the world this would be a top priority. Anyone care to enlighten me?
You're looking at this from a uniquely American perspective.
1) Not all passports are chipped
2) Those that are often have the chips burned out intentionally
3) There are not electronic readers (or for that matter, electricity) at every single border crossing, port, airport gate, and customs station in the entire world
4) Even if there were, there is no database of every single passport ever issued by every country in the world which can electronically track their use and wherabouts, and alert international authorities when a stolen passport is used
Or, to put it more simply, a passport is not a Visa, MasterCard, or Amex. It's more like cash; it can be stolen and forged and there is no computer in the world capable of tracking every single one.
I really love the befuddlement of my countrymen who haven't got a clue that the entire world doesn't world exactly the same as the United States. Nor should it.
But, hey, "Somebody ought to DO somethin' 'bout that!" Right?