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DAVAO
CITY—The new foolproof passport and the interface
requirement to apply for it may likely cut access to
passports by minors who pretend to be adults to get jobs
abroad, the chief of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA)
office here said.
Danny
Te, chief of the regional consular office of the DFA-Southern
Mindanao and the Caraga Regions, said that the new
configuration in the passport would make it hard for
syndicates to access the passports for their victims,
which include minors.
Minors
have once again figured in recent reported incidents of
physical and sexual abuse in the Middle East. As with
previous celebrated cases—like that of Sarah Balabagan,
the 14-year-old whose recruiter put her down as an adult
in her passport and sent her to Abu Dhabi, where she
almost got the death penalty for killing an abusive
employer—the recent cases indicated that up till
recently, syndicates in human trafficking had been able
to exploit weaknesses in the old passport.
In
contrast, Te said the new passports have indelible
markings in all pages, including the photograph of the
bearer, which would glow under special lights.
“In the
green-colored passports, syndicates have mastered the
craft of replacing the pictures of the passports such
that even authorities find it hard to detect the
tampering,” he said.
But in
the new passport, the pictures were embedded in digital
form and with the biographical data and inscriptions
covered by a film-like inlay, whose borders also contain
fine inscriptions. The biodata shown beside the
photograph are also the same data that are etched in the
photograph, which can be read only by an ultraviolet
light.
Each
page also contains markings that only machines can
detect, and the thread that sews together the pages in
the center part has its own set of identifying marks.
“We will
see how syndicates will be able to tamper with this one,
but this passport is unlikely to be tampered anymore,”
Te said.
Besides,
he added, “each passport will need the applicant to
appear personally at our office. That will already
prevent minors from misdeclaring information, such as
their age, just to enable them to pass through
immigration and get jobs abroad.”
The
stringent process may have also affected the syndicates,
such that long queues once seen at the Davao office have
been shortened. “Or probably because the price of oil
has discouraged many applicants from applying in
droves.”
Te said
they usually got 600 daily applicants in the Davao
office alone when the green passport was then being
issued. With the new passport and with the individual
interviews, the applications have dwindled to 500 daily.
The
Davao office has also created a courtesy lane, intended
to speed up the process only for senior citizens,
government officials and other sectors needing special
care and attention. |
