52,000 passports lost
BEIJING: More than 52,000 Malaysians reportedly lost their passports in the first eight months of this year.
This works out to an average of about 6,500 per month, or about 200 passports lost per day.
According to Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun a Malaysian passport c a n f e t c h b e t ween RM100,000 and RM250,000 on the black market.
This means that if they had been stolen and sold on the black market, they would have fetched between RM5.2 billion and RM13 billion for syndicates.
“We view this seriously because Malaysian passports are highly sought,” said Mohamad Fuzi, adding that lost Malaysian passports are recorded in Interpol’s database.
The IGP is here for the 86th Interpol General Assembly with Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Datuk S e r i Ahmad Zahi d Hamidi.
Meanwhile, Bernama quoted Ahmad Zahid as saying that based on the database at Interpol’s headquarters in France, of t h e 7 6 mi l l i o n passports r e ported missing throughout the world, 192,402 were Malaysian.
He said the Malaysian passport was among the best in the world because of its security features and was accepted by more than 150 countries without the need for a visa.
He noted that Interpol’s role was becoming more important, especially i n real- time data sharing with Malaysian police for cases involving theft, stolen and lost travel documents,
fingerprints, firearms, carjacking and wanted persons.
Ahmad Zahid said that transborder crimes like cyber crimes and terrorism were now getting increasingly complex, and they were also often found to be linked.
As such, it is important for police to master technology to effectively combat transborder crimes, he added.
“Biometrics such as fingerprints are key areas to ensure criminals can be tracked down fast. Face recognition systems are also important.”
Ahmad Zahid said to foster international peace, long-term measures like information and data sharing between Interpol countries are needed.
“We are satisfied with the close cooperation between Malaysian police and Interpol in tracking down foreign or Malaysian criminals overseas in a timely manner,” he said.