The number of manual passport seekers had amazingly increased after April 1, 2009, the time since when the government started distributing passports from the capital. [break]
"Our rough estimate suggests more than 50 thousand passports could have been issued based on forged documents within the period as MoFA officials did not follow the proper citizenship verification mechanism before issuing a passport," said OPMCM Secretary Lila Mani Paudyal.
"The MoFA officials briefed us that nearly 2,000 to 2,500 passports were issued each day over the period of six months starting April. They informed us that earlier the total number of passports issued each day from all the 75 District Administration Offices (DAOs) ranged from 1,000 to 1,200," he added.
He however clarified that further investigation is needed to find out the exact number of passports issued during the period. "Forged passports could have serious ramifications to the country in future thus we have to investigate and regulate passport distribution system," he said.
According to him, the document sent by Nepali Embassy in Kuwait to OPMCM is enough to claim that thousands of forged passports were issued in six months of period. "Nepal´s ambassador to Kuwait has sent us evidence of 34 forged passports recently. He found those forged passports in a short period of investigation. He informed us that the number of forged passports could increase," Secretary Paudyal informed Republica. All forged passports uncovered by Nepali Embassy in Kuwait were issued in the six months period.
According to Secretary Paudyal, there are mainly three reasons behind the growing number of passport seekers and subsequent distribution of forged passports.
First, racketeers in various parts of the country are involved in producing forged citizenship card which is essential for passport. Second, foreign employment brokers provoked innocent people to secure hand written passport before the introduction of Machine Readable Passport (MRP) citing various reasons. Third, the government´s weak verification mechanism for issuing passports.
One has to produce citizenship card before government officials to claim for passport. Paudyal fears that some racketeers could have been involved in developing fake citizenship documents in view that they could use such fake citizenships to acquire passport in future by tampering the documents.
According to OPMCM, foreign employment brokers and forged citizenship racketeers could have provoked people to secure a manual passport before the issuance of MRP saying that manual are better for them for future purpose.
"Brokers have been telling people that they can send them abroad by changing photos in their passports if they secure manual passports. Changing photos form one passport to another is impossible in MRP. This could have prompted the long queue outside the foreign ministry," he argued.
According to OPMCM, there is a big variation between the demand of Nepali workers in abroad and the number of passport seekers in capital during six months of period. "This variation doesn´t justify the double issuance of passport," Paudayal added.
MoFA asked to decentralize passport distribution system
Following weak passport distribution mechanism, the OPMCM has asked MoFA to make preparation to decentralize the passport distribution system.
"Documents of those who apply for passport must be cross-verified by respective Chief District Officers (CDOs) because they can instantly verify the seeker´s citizenship. The MoFA can decide whether or not to issue passport based on CDO´s verification. This mechanism will help curb the rise in the number of forged passport," Secretary Paudyal added.
Forensic Unit in MoFA
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has set up a separate unit of forensic experts from Nepal Police at its premises to check doubtful documents that could be used to acquire machine readable passports (MRP).
"The experts started working from Sunday," said an official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, adding that the move was taken to check fraudulent activities.
Related story
DoP issues over 3,600 e-passports daily
