Passport Authenticity: Checking With Cutting-Edge Machines At Airports

The passports are being checked whether they are real or fake ones at the airports, sea ports and border gates, which are the main entrance to Myanmar, with the use of the machines provided by the governments of Canada and Australia. The ministry of Home Affairs is conducting the operation. 

Director, Department of Immigration and Border Entry/Exit Control, Ye Tun Oo: "Our department has signed a 5-year agreement with the Australian government in checking authenticity of passports. We've installed the machines at the international airports in Yangon, Mandalay and Nay Pyi Taw as well as the machines are being kept ready at the sea ports. The passports are scanned by a microscope whether they are authentic in international standard." 

Trainings have been given to the officers and staff who are going to operate them by experts from Taiwan, Canada and Australia and the machines are being used at 7 entry/exit points of the country. 

Immigration in-charge, Yangon International Airport, Kyaw Thura: "If errors occurred while scanning the passports, we scan them again by using the machines in the Document Examination Lab. The staff are well trained by the IOM since two weeks before the machines are installed."

As people from across the world are entering from the entry/exit gates, the use of document examination lab can strengthen the national security, officials said. 

Director, Department of Immigration and Border Entry/Exit Control, Ye Tun Oo: " Now, our country is permitting tourists from 100 countries to apply for e-visa and 51 countries visa on arrival. And we are permitting 12 kinds of visas. The immigration and emigration issues has something to do with national security. So, this can strengthen the national security. "