Interpol alert: Where's your lost passport?

Interpol Secretary General Ronald K Noble has warned that ''stolen and lost travel documents are still in the hands of international terrorists”.

With at least 400 million out of the 1.2 billion international passengers in 2013 not screened against Interpol’s Stolen and Lost Travel Documents (SLTD) database which holds more than 40 million records, Noble said the role of travel document security in preserving lives will be ‘fundamental to avoiding the collapse of global security over the next decade’.

"History and past bloodshed have taught us that transnational terrorists will cross borders time and again to complete their distorted mission," said the Interpol Chief while speaking earlier at a high-level open briefing before the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) and its Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED).

"The time to act is now. The time is now for the United Nations, for the Counter-Terrorism Committee and for its Executive Directorate to join Interpol and make it a global priority to close this security gap.

"What is clear is that the failure by countries to systematically screen identity documents has left the general public and the private sector alone to face this threat," said the Interpol Chief.

Noble pointed to Interpol’s I-Checkit initiative which will enable the public and private sectors to identify the fraudulent use of travel documents, as well as detect and prevent illicit transactions.

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