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Over 1,000 fake passports seized at Dubai airports

Dubai - They also spotted fake residence cards and licences for other countries.

A total of 1,043 forged passports were seized in Dubai's international airports this year, the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDFRA) has said.
Aqil Ahmed Al Najjar, consultant of the Document Examination Centre at GDRFA Dubai, said the authority has been using the latest technology to detect new methods of forgery, thus preventing fraudsters and wanted individuals from entering the UAE.
Aside from passports, GDFRA Dubai had also spotted fake residence cards and licences for other countries.
"Those who came to the country through transit to travel to other countries without carrying a visit visa to their destination or by giving forged identity and residence cards were sent back to the country where they came from," Al Najjar said.
A total of 1,700 first-level passport control officers are qualified to detect fake passports through the 'retro-check' device, which reveals the documents' protection marks.
Al Najjar said fraud is identified by cross-checking the security marks or identities that are already stored in the databases of the department.
Genuine documents are marked with phosphoric inks, colour and phosphoric fiber, and watermark microscopic and protruding printing, along with the passport-fixing thread, which can be read only through ultraviolet radiation.
"The centre receives forged documents of multiple nationalities daily, but most of them are easy to detect," he said.
Some replace the data pages and personal photos of the passport with fake ones, Al Najjar added.
reporters@khaleejtimes.com