(13 March) In the wake of evidence that two passengers on a missing Malaysian Airlines flight have boarded the plane with fake passports, the authorities have told the Thais to rest assured that their passports are very hard to forge.
Concern over security of passports and immigration in Thailand was raised after the two real holders of the forged passports told media they had lost their passports in Thailand.
However, the Department of Consular Affairs has released a statement today that the authorities have not encountered any single case of forged Thai passport ever since its launch of E-Passport system in 2001.
The procedure of issuing Thai passports is accompanied with high levels of anti-forgery mechanism, the statement claimed, which corresponds to standard required by international authorities, such as the inclusion of biometrics data of the passport holders.
The statement also reminds the public that the passports used to board the missing flight MH370 were forgeries of foreign passports, not Thai ones.
"Ever since we began the program of electronic passports in 2001, we have procured over 10 million passports," the statement said, "No case of forged Thai passports has been reported".
