Interpol Head Highlights UK's Lax Passport Checking
The UK government is defending claims launched by the head of Interpol that it is failing to assess visitors in relation to a computerised log of stolen passports. The police agency's head, Ronald K Noble, stated that there existed a "clear link between stolen passports and al-Qaeda linked terrorist activity". In conversation with the BBC, Mr Noble added that "The UK's anti-terrorist effort is in the wrong century."
The Home Office, by return, is adamant that awareness of the stolen passports database extends to border officials, and that checks are in progress. To this, the government division confirmed that the details of anyone discovered to be on the list, and who was additionally known by the police or Soca (the Serious and Organised Crime Agency) to be a threat, would be provided to border authorities.
Mr Noble stated that he would want to see the UK becoming linked up to the database "within months." The log contains the numbers of 7,000,000 stolen passports.
In a open letter, Mr Noble highlighted how, out of the 186 countries comprising Interpol's membership, a mere 17 were known to be actively cross referencing the passport numbers of visitors against those contained on this database. By way of stark comparison, he stated, "... all countries systematically check our bags to see if we are carrying bottles of water or other liquids." Mr Noble concluded that "these priorities seem misplaced".
Regarding implementation of these checks on British soil, Mr Noble said that Interpol was not yet in receipt of an appropriate "watch list". "Until this happens, any time another Interpol member country consults our database about any of the individuals on this watch list, Interpol will have to report that they are unknown, meaning that the UK might lose a significant investigative lead," he said.
A consequence of this, according to Mr Noble, could be that "those individuals on the UK terrorist watch list would remain free to plan and carry out more terrorist attacks".
Among the prominent political comments to emerge, regarding the issue of whether the UK should be carrying out these checks more proactively, Damien Green, Conservative Immigration Spokesman, suggested that that government's focus was more on the sensational than the practical, including the Interpol database. Mr Green stated: "We are one of the countries that international terrorists want to hit...why are we not at the forefront of this technology?"
In his initial House of Commons speech as Britain's new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown pledged that the UK would do more, on a global scale, to expand the "watch list" of perceived terrorists. Speaking to Sky News yesterday, Mr Brown confirmed that government analysis of the measures to be implemented was taking place "as a matter of urgency." To this, he added: "We do now need more information flowing internationally about who are potential terrorists and who are potential suspects. I think it is very important that we tighten this up."
Source - Security International Newsdesk
