Following the Interpol database alert, NCB-Malaysia within a few hours contacted NCB-Kathmandu about the suspicious passport and the identity of the passport bearer. The real identity of the passport bearer was then established as Binod Rana Magar. Thus finding Magar guilty of misusing Aryal's passport by replacing the photo, he was deported to Nepal for further action.
Such action become possible thanks to the help of the SLTD database, which is used to ascertain the validity of travel documents -- passports, identity papers, visas -- within a short time. Aryal had lost his passport and applied for a new one after contacting the Department of Passports (DoP) for cancellation of the old document. He not only avoided the misuse of his missing passport but also protected himself from possible hassles.
In recent years, it has become normal practice for Nepalis to report passport losses and acquire replacements.
NCB-Kathmandu started keeping records since November 2014 on such cases and tracking the missing passports with the help of other NCBs when “lost travel documents” are misused for criminal or other undesirable activities.
Till December 2015, NCB-Kathmandu had entered the details of 99,272 passports under the SLTD section of the Interpol website, with the support of the Department of Passport under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to Nepal Police spokesperson, DIG Kamal Singh Bam.
DSP Basundhara Khadka, chief of NCB-Kathmandu, said, “The new measure has become helpful in curbing the misuse of passports and has discouraged people applying for passports out of evil motives.”
Following the 11th September 2001 terrorist attacks in the USA, the SLTD database was created in 2002, to help secure the borders and protect citizens from terrorists and criminals using fake travel documents.
As per the arrangements, DoP collects the details of lost passports from various district administration offices across the country and Nepali missions abroad, and provides Interpol the details of lost passport applications.
Sharad Raj Aran, director at the Department of Passport, informed that the department has details of over 130,000 such documents. A few are yet to be sent to Interpol's NCB-Kathmandu for data entries. The NCBs make database entries of dates of issuance, venue of passport issuance, names, surnames and dates of issuance of new passports.
We clearly inform those applying for new passports at various district administration offices and Nepali missions abroad about Interpol's monitoring of missing or stolen passports, Director Aran said adding, this has contributed to lowering the incidence of misuse.
“We urge those applying for new passports after loss or theft to inform DoP so that they won't face unnecessary hassles in future,” he said.
According to NCB-Kathmandu, action has been taken on some 16 Nepalis so far, with the support of other international NCBs, while NCB Kathmandu has records of 33 people trying to misuse travel documents. Similarly, more than nine foreign nationals trying to enter Nepal through the misuse of travel documents, mainly passports, were subjected to action with the support of the SLTD website hits.
Interpol started the SLTD database with a few thousand records from 10 countries. As of the end of 2015, over 170 countries contribute to the database which contains more than 53,986,000 records of such documents.
From January to November 2015, the searched 'hit' was more than 1,575,000,000 times, with more than 125,000 positive responses, according to Interpol.
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