How difficult is it to board a plane with a stolen passport? Not as hard as you might think. In any major international airport, it's not uncommon to have your passport checked four times or more between check-in and boarding the aircraft. But if passenger documents aren't checked against Interpol's database of Stolen and Lost Travel Documents, travelers using those documents can slip through layers of security. Reports that two passengers on missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 were traveling on stolen Austrian and Italian passports have highlighted security concerns that have troubled Interpol for years, the international law enforcement agency said Sunday. The flight, carrying over 200 passengers, disappeared from radar on Saturday and hasn't been seen or heard from since. "Interpol is asking why only a handful of countries worldwide are taking care to make sure that persons possessing stolen passports are not boarding international flights," said Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble, in a statement. What happened to Flight 370? Before the departure of Flight 370, no country had checked the stolen passports against Interpol's list since they were added to the lost-documents database in 2012 and 2013, Interpol said. It is countries, not airlines, that have access to Interpol's data, and many governments don't routinely check passports against the database. In 2013, passengers were able to board planes more than a billion times without having their travel documents checked against Interpol's data, the agency said. Airlines carried more than 3.1 billion passengers globally in 2013, according to estimates from the International Air Transport Association. Are stolen passports related to plane's disappearance? Investigators don't yet know if the travelers with stolen passports had anything to do with the plane's disappearance. On any given day, many people travel using stolen or fake passports for reasons that have nothing to with terrorism, aviation security expert Richard Bloom told CNN. They might be trying to immigrate illegally to another country, or they might be smuggling stolen goods, people, drugs or weapons or trying to import otherwise legal goods without paying taxes, said Bloom, director of terrorism, intelligence and security studies at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. "For all of those reasons, the very notion that passports might be important in this particular situation may be a red herring," Bloom said. A pilot's take: Why so few clues about missing Malaysia flight? While it's too soon to speculate about any connection between these stolen passports and the missing plane, Interpol's Noble said the main concern remains that any passenger was able to board an international flight using a stolen passport listed in Interpol's databases. "This is a situation we had hoped never to see," he said. "For years Interpol has asked why should countries wait for a tragedy to put prudent security measures in place at borders and boarding gates?" Few countries look up stolen passports Interpol does not charge countries for access to its databases, but some of the 190 Interpol member countries may not have the technical capacity or resources to access the network, according to Tom Fuentes, a former FBI assistant director. "It's just up to the will of the country to set it up and do it," Fuentes said. Interpol's lost-document database was created in 2002, following the September 11, 2001, attacks, to help countries secure their borders. Since then, it has expanded from a few thousand passports and searches to more than 40 million entries and more than 800 million searches per year. About 60,000 of those 800 million searches yield hits against stolen or lost documents, according to Interpol. The United States searches the database more 250 million times annually, the United Kingdom more than 120 million times annually and the United Arab Emirates more than 50 million times annually, Interpol said. (Some 300,000 passports are lost or stolen each year in the United States, alone, according to the U.S. Department of State, which collects reports of stolen passports and sends the information to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Interpol.) The United States routinely checks all inbound and outbound passengers on international flights against the database, said Fuentes. "If Malaysia Airlines and all airlines worldwide were able to check the passport details of prospective passengers against Interpol's database, then we would not have to speculate whether stolen passports were used by terrorists to board MH 370," said Interpol's Noble. The Thailand connection The Austrian and Italian passports were stolen in Thailand in 2012 and 2013, respectively, according to Interpol. Thailand is a booming market for stolen passports. Paul Quaglia, who has been working in the region as a security and risk analyst for 14 years, said the situation in Thailand is better than it was 5 to 10 years ago, "but still not up to international standards." "Unfortunately, Thailand remains a robust venue for the sale of high-quality false passports (which includes altered stolen passports) and other supporting documentation," he said. Not all "lost" passports are necessarily "stolen" passports, Quaglia said. "Some passports 'lost' are actually sold by the passport holder. Some young men and others traveling to Thailand, short on cash after extended partying and high living, can be approached to sell a passport, which can be easily replaced at embassies upon presentation of a routine 'lost passport' police report," he said. Searching for true identities An investigation has been launched into the Flight 370 matter with Malaysian and aviation authorities reviewing video and other documentation to try to identify not only who the passengers were that used the stolen passports, but how the illegal passports cleared security. Interpol has said it is currently in contact with its National Central Bureaus in the involved countries to determine the true identities of the passengers who used these stolen passports to board the missing Malaysia Airlines flight. Interpol's Noble urged countries and airlines to adopt routine checks against its lost and stolen document database. "I sincerely hope that governments and airlines worldwide will learn from the tragedy of missing flight MH 370 and begin to screen all passengers' passports prior to allowing them to board flights," Noble said. "Doing so will indeed take us a step closer to ensuring safer travel." |
持假護(hù)照登機(jī)到底有多難?其實(shí)不然,沒(méi)有你想象中那么艱難。通常情況下,在任何大型國(guó)際機(jī)場(chǎng),從你辦理登記手續(xù)到真正登上飛機(jī),你大概要接受四次以上的安檢。但是如果沒(méi)有利用與國(guó)際刑警組織丟失旅行證件數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù)(SLTD)對(duì)乘客護(hù)照進(jìn)行核對(duì),那么你就可以利用其它有效證件躲避層層的安檢。 有報(bào)道稱(chēng),兩名乘客持盜取的奧地利和意大利護(hù)照,登上失聯(lián)的MH370班機(jī),由此引發(fā)了公眾對(duì)困擾國(guó)際刑警組織多年的航空安全問(wèn)題的關(guān)注。搭載200多名乘客的MH370的班機(jī),3月8日從雷達(dá)中突然消失后,至今依然下落不明。 國(guó)際刑警組織秘書(shū)長(zhǎng)Ronald K. Noble在一次聲明中表示:“國(guó)際刑警組織想問(wèn)一問(wèn),為什么世界上只有少數(shù)國(guó)家采取嚴(yán)格的安檢措施,防止攜帶假護(hù)照的可疑人員登上國(guó)際航班?!?/p> ***MH370航班遭遇了什么? 國(guó)際刑警組織稱(chēng),這兩份護(hù)照分別在2012年和2013年被盜,隨后就被錄入國(guó)際刑警組織丟失旅行證件數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù)。從護(hù)照信息被錄入資料庫(kù)一直到馬航MH370航班起飛,在這段時(shí)間里沒(méi)有任何國(guó)家在資料庫(kù)中對(duì)此進(jìn)行過(guò)查證。 只有政府有權(quán)使用資料庫(kù),航空公司無(wú)法獲取這些數(shù)據(jù)。但是許多國(guó)家并沒(méi)有按時(shí)對(duì)資料庫(kù)中的信息進(jìn)行核對(duì)。 國(guó)際刑警組織估測(cè),2013年間,世界航空運(yùn)送旅客超過(guò)31億人次,在沒(méi)有利用國(guó)際刑警組織丟失旅行證件數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù)資料庫(kù)核對(duì)護(hù)照信息的情況下,全球范圍內(nèi)就有超過(guò)10億次的成功登機(jī)記錄。 ***失竊護(hù)照是否與飛機(jī)失聯(lián)有關(guān)? 調(diào)查者目前還不能確定失竊護(hù)照是否與飛機(jī)失聯(lián)有關(guān)。在接受美國(guó)有線電視新聞網(wǎng)采訪時(shí),航空安全專(zhuān)家、安伯瑞德航空大學(xué)恐怖主義、情報(bào)和安全研究中心主任,理查德·布盧姆(Richard Bloom)表示,每天人們以各種與恐怖主義無(wú)關(guān)的緣由,使用偷來(lái)的和假的護(hù)照。有時(shí)只是為了非法偷渡到另一個(gè)國(guó)家,或者為了處理贓物,販賣(mài)武器、人口、毒品,非法走私商品。 布盧姆說(shuō):“綜合考慮,認(rèn)為失竊護(hù)照在這起事故中意義重大的觀點(diǎn),只不過(guò)是轉(zhuǎn)移公共視線的方式罷了。” 盡管現(xiàn)在斷定護(hù)照失竊與飛機(jī)失聯(lián)有關(guān)還為時(shí)尚早,但是國(guó)際刑警組織秘書(shū)長(zhǎng)Noble依然表達(dá)了對(duì)持假護(hù)照乘客能夠輕易登上國(guó)際航班問(wèn)題的擔(dān)憂(yōu)。 “一直以來(lái),我們都不希望這種問(wèn)題的出現(xiàn)。多年來(lái),國(guó)際刑警組織一直想問(wèn)問(wèn)為什么一些國(guó)家非要等到悲劇發(fā)生之后才開(kāi)始加強(qiáng)安檢措施呢?” ***僅有少數(shù)國(guó)家使用國(guó)際刑警組織丟失旅行證件數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù) 據(jù)美國(guó)聯(lián)邦調(diào)查局前副局長(zhǎng)Tom Fuentes所講,國(guó)際刑警組織不會(huì)向190個(gè)成員國(guó)收取信息使用費(fèi),但是一些成員國(guó)確實(shí)沒(méi)有技術(shù)能力使用這一網(wǎng)絡(luò)。 Tom Fuentes說(shuō):“這當(dāng)然也取決于該國(guó)愿不愿意安裝和使用這些數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù)?!?/p> 9·11事件之后,國(guó)際刑警組織丟失旅行證件數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù)于2002年創(chuàng)建,旨在幫助世界各國(guó)維護(hù)邊境安全。自那以后,該數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù)不斷發(fā)展。護(hù)照丟失信息記錄由幾千條擴(kuò)展到超過(guò)4000萬(wàn)條,每年該數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù)中搜索記錄超過(guò)8億次。 國(guó)際刑警組織資料顯示,8億的搜索結(jié)果中就有6萬(wàn)與信息庫(kù)數(shù)據(jù)不對(duì)應(yīng)。美國(guó)、英國(guó)和阿聯(lián)酋,每年三國(guó)在該數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù)中搜索記錄分別超過(guò)2.5億次、1.2億次和5000萬(wàn)次 Fuentes表示,利用國(guó)際刑警組織的這一數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù),美國(guó)經(jīng)常核查國(guó)際航班上所有出入境乘客的護(hù)照信息。 國(guó)際刑警組織秘書(shū)長(zhǎng)說(shuō):“如果馬來(lái)新亞航空公司和其他航空公司能夠利用該數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù)核查下所有乘客的護(hù)照信息,我們沒(méi)必要推測(cè)恐怖分子使用失竊護(hù)照登上MH370航班了?!?/p> ***護(hù)照失竊與泰國(guó)有何關(guān)聯(lián)? 泰國(guó)正日益成為護(hù)照失竊的高發(fā)地。在當(dāng)?shù)毓ぷ鏖L(zhǎng)達(dá)14年的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)與安全分析師Paul Quaglia說(shuō),和5到10年前相比,泰國(guó)的安全局勢(shì)好了不少,但是“依然達(dá)不到國(guó)際標(biāo)準(zhǔn)”?!翱上?,泰國(guó)依然是仿制高質(zhì)量護(hù)照和其它有效證件的重要基地。Paul Quaglia透露,一些來(lái)泰國(guó)旅游的年輕人,身上帶的現(xiàn)金不多,卻參加奢侈的聚會(huì),享受高消費(fèi)帶來(lái)的快樂(lè),一陣揮霍后,身上所剩無(wú)幾,于是選擇賣(mài)掉自己的護(hù)照換些現(xiàn)金。然后再到大使館按照規(guī)定補(bǔ)辦一本護(hù)照。所以并不是所有“丟失”的護(hù)照都是被“偷走的”。一些所謂“丟失”的護(hù)照會(huì)在市場(chǎng)上流動(dòng)。 針對(duì)MH370失竊護(hù)照的調(diào)查已經(jīng)展開(kāi),航空專(zhuān)家希望通過(guò)回放機(jī)場(chǎng)錄像以及調(diào)查其它資料不僅找到是誰(shuí)偷了護(hù)照后登機(jī),而且還希望弄清非法護(hù)照如何危害航空安全。 國(guó)際刑警組織稱(chēng),他們正在同其在相關(guān)國(guó)家駐設(shè)的“國(guó)家中心局”(National Central Bureaus)聯(lián)系,查明MH370航班上持假護(hù)照登機(jī)乘客的真實(shí)身份。 國(guó)際刑警組織敦促各國(guó)和航空公司利用國(guó)際刑警組織丟失旅行證件數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù),對(duì)乘客的護(hù)照及其相關(guān)證件進(jìn)行核查。 國(guó)際刑警組織秘書(shū)長(zhǎng)Ronald K. Noble表示:“我真誠(chéng)地希望世界各國(guó)政府和航空公司能從MH370航班失聯(lián)的悲劇中幡然醒悟,并開(kāi)始對(duì)所有乘客的護(hù)照進(jìn)行檢查,檢查清楚后再允許登機(jī)。只有采取這樣的措施才能保證乘客出行的安全?!?/p> 相關(guān)閱讀 馬航失聯(lián)飛機(jī)可能飛行五個(gè)小時(shí) 網(wǎng)傳土耳其總理與兒子密謀轉(zhuǎn)移財(cái)產(chǎn) (譯者 靜海 編輯 Julie) |