Thai passport has highest safety standards

[webfact]

Thai passport has highest safety standards



BANGKOK: -- The Department of Consular Affairs assures today that Thai passport production meets international standards and is highly difficult to forge.

Assurance from the department came as there was report in some foreign news media of a foreign passport forging racket in Thailand which might have connection with the missing of the Malaysian Airlines’ Flight MH 370 last week.

Posting on the department’s Facebook page, it tells the people to have confidence in the security standards involving the issuance of Thai passports which meets the requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organization.

The department said that so far more than 10 million Thai passports have been issued since it began E-passport production in 2005. No information of forged Thai passports being detected so far, it said.

It went on saying that reports of forged foreign passports being found in Thailand, in fact were not forged Thai passports.

It said Thai passport has high security features and well-hidden making it highly difficult to forge. Besides the passport itself also contain biological data of the passport owner that could prevent finger prints forgery efficiently.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/thai-passport-highest-safety-standards/


-- Thai PBS 2014-03-13

[Cuchulainn]

Yeah, but who would want to nick a Thai passport. Much the same as nicking an Angolan or Afghani passport!!

[pookiki]

Is this an off-hand way of saying that Italian passports are easy to forge?

[toonsai]

Nice One! April Fool! Anyhow - besides the retirees in beautiful Pattaya - who would want a Thai passport? Even the Iranians are not interested...

Edited March 13, 2014 by toonsai

[Artisi]

Yeah, but who would want to nick a Thai passport. Much the same as nicking an Angolan or Afghani passport!!

By the same token, who would want to forge a Thai passport, you can't travel anywhere of interest with one anyway.

[Pimay1]

The Department of Consular Affairs assures today that Thai passport production meets international standards and is highly difficult to forge.

Some international standards are better than others. Interesting information in the link below.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-440069/Safest-passport-fit-purpose.html

[BeforeTigers]

Nobody's stealing Thai passports.
They're going to Thailand to steal western passports.
That's a different problem entirely.

Keep your eye on the ball.

[Thainess]

Yeah, but let's face it... EVERYTHING in Thailand has the highest safety standards. New TAT slogan: "Thailand... Hub of safety." (They just measure safety in a slightly different way over here.)

[webfact]

Foreign Ministry gives assurances on fraud proof Thai passport
By Digital Content



BANGKOK, March 13 - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Department of Consular Affairs has reassured the public of the safety of Thai passport, asserting that Thai passports are forgery proof.

The Department of Consular Affairs has issued a statement, posted on the Foreign Ministry website, that the Thai passport is an e-passport produced with high standards in accordance with the regulations of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

The department said the Thai passport is considered a high quality travel document which cannot be forged.

The Thai passport contains biometric information that can be used to authenticate the identity of the bearer, and the passport also features recognition of the all ten traveller fingerprints, the statement said.

Since the e-passport was launched in Thailand in 2005, the department has issued more than 10 million such documents and there have been no reports of forgery.

The statement was issued after a media report that counterfeit passports were produced in Thailand and may be link with the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

The Department of Consular Affairs pointed out that the case was related to foreign passport forgery in Thailand not the Thai passport. (MCOT online news)


-- TNA 2014-03-13

[DrTuner]

Isn't the problem that they nick the passports when you f.ex. leave it at the scooter rental agencies and then blatantly use those passports, even if the new owner doesn't remotely look same and no one at the border or check-in bothers to really check ? Has naught to do with the security features of the document itself.

[Soutpeel]

Nice One! April Fool! Anyhow - besides the retirees in beautiful Pattaya - who would want a Thai passport? Even the Iranians are not interested...

If you read TV enough many many thaier than thai members would be creaming in their panties to get a thai passport

[ABCer]

The greatest safety feature of Thai passport is - nobody wants it.

[gerry123]

has anybody said that Thai passports were not of a high standard ?????

[Mister Fixit]

Yeah, so safety proof, they don't even have an embedded microchip like the UK passport ...

[Torrens54]

Okay, perhaps Thailand could become the "Passport HUB of the WORLD." Just think, every country around the world could get their Passports produced in Thailand to the high standard that exists here.

No possible way for anything to be forged, no possibility of graft and it would make money for Thai Printing Shops.....might set one up in my back yard.

[sam sen]

we all know everything in thailand is of the highest quality and meets international standards.

[JRSoul]

Just in case you never heard about this.

as the photo of the holder is embedded in the page and is also printed on the page, not using a "glued in" photo that could be replaced with another.

Did you ever had the chance to look at an European passport? Try it out it will widen your knowledge.

Who needs to change the photo? To westerners they all look the same.

[Gummigalgen]

My sons's Thai passport was still valid for 2 years but I decided to apply for a new one because the picture changed, him being older.

You get the 'old' Thai passport back with a tiny red stamp on the backside of the front cover stating' "cancelled". It takes some soap and water to wash that away and you have a valid Thai passport which traffickers can use to smuggle children. Perforation would be more clever.

[a99az]

"biological data!!" I have heard of Biometric Data but <deleted> is biological data do they rub the passport over the holders body?

[dao16]

My wife is on her second or third Thai passport and they have all seemed fine. They have the same security measures as passports from other countries. This article just seems a little weird as the security of Thai passports is not really at issue.

[SOTIRIOS]

...what does that have to do with the stolen foreign passport trade......

[JRSoul]

I think they are saying it's the foreigners fault because if they didn't come here we couldn't steal and forge their passports.

[focus27]

Would make a good comedy sketch: man sold a fake Thai passport discovers he can't go anywhere with it.

One interesting bit of info to come out of the Malaysia Airlines incident is that Interpol does have an extensive Stolen and Lost Travel Documents database. However, it has so far only been accessible to national police forces, but very few countries bother to use it - mainly the growing US-UK police states and allies. 167 countries supply info to Interpol but fewer than 20 actually use it!

Finally, Interpol is going to allow airlines to search their database.

So, all those Thai border police looking you up on their (slow) computers are not doing anything more than verifying that you have left or entered Thailand legitimately - they are not checking that your passport is valid.

[bbbbooboo]

typical Thailand.......living in a dream world

[Sydebolle]

..... now that explains it all. This morning my friend arrived at 4 am (21.00 GMT last night) at Central Bang Na to be able to grab one of the 2'000 numbers which is all that passport office is willing to handle. By 8.30 am local time at least 5'000 people were around = success rate 40%.
But yes, the highest security standards are applied which explains this tedious public service.

My wife's passport expired after 5 years with 80% empty pages (just in/out of Lao PDR all the time). Instead of extending the booklet and collecting a fee for the governmental coffers = NO, a new booklet, pictures, forms, copies, receipts, signatures and signatures were needed; apart from packing/mailing the passport a few days later. This could have - in this (and many other) cases - been avoided. But they know everything better; that's because they are the government's bureaucrats!

[bigbamboo]

Since when do criminals 'copy' Thai products.... apart from rice?

And even that has lost it's appeal now.

[Danbit]

Iris scanning gives the best safety, but rather expensive.

[lostmebike]

'Posting on the department’s Facebook page..'

Don't they mean posing?

[harrycallahan]

we all know everything in thailand is of the highest quality and meets international standards.

ISO 9000

[godden]

Same as Walt Disney passport, you get to chose your photo mickey mouse or donald duck