52,000 passports lost

BEIJING: More than 52,000 Malaysians reportedly lost their passports in the first eight months of this year.
This works out to an average of about 6,500 per month, or about 200 passports lost per day.
According to Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun, a Malaysian passport can fetch between RM100,000 and RM250,000 on the black market.
This means that if they had been stolen and sold on the black market, they would have fetched between RM5.2 billion and RM13 billion for syndicates.
"We view this seriously because Malaysian passports are highly sought," said Mohamad Fuzi, adding that lost Malaysian passports are recorded in Interpol's database.
The IGP is here for the 86th Interpol General Assembly with Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Meanwhile, Bernama quoted Ahmad Zahid as saying that based on the database at Interpol's headquarters in France, of the 76 million passports reported missing throughout the world, 192,402 were Malaysian.
He said the Malaysian passport was among the best in the world because of its security features and was accepted by more than 150 countries without the need for a visa.
He noted that Interpol's role was becoming more important, especially in real-time data sharing with Malaysian police for cases involving theft, stolen and lost travel documents, (SLTD), finger prints, firearms, carjacking and wanted persons list.
Ahmad Zahid said that transborder crimes like cyber crimes and terrorism were now getting increasingly complex, and they were also often found to be linked.
As such, it is important for police to master technology to effectively combat transborder crimes.
"Biometrics such as finger prints are key evidence to ensure criminals can be tracked down fast. Face recognition systems are also important," he added.
Ahmad Zahid said to foster international peace, long-term measures like information and data sharing between Interpol countries is needed.
"We are satisfied with the close cooperation between Malaysian police and Interpol in tracking down foreign criminals or Malaysian criminals overseas in a timely manner," he said.