 Norwegian authorities warn cooperation partners each time a passport goes astray. There are currently a record 95,000 missing passports in the computer register of the Schengen agreement countries, news agency ANB reports.
Tormod Ødegård, head of the passport office for Oslo police urges citizens to take better care of this document. "This is serious."
"The passport is a proof of identification that can be abused," Ødegård said.
| This guy is really good, isn't he. Passports can be abused. Musta been to Pakistan once or twice. |
In addition to the 95,000 thousand active missing passports, there are also missing foreign passports and travel documents for foreign nationals living in Norway and there is no clear overview of how big this problem is.
| Sounds like their Immigration Service is about as good as ours. |
The NCIS fears that many of Norway's missing passports are being misused, and they are particularly attractive since Norwegian citizens can travel visa-free to so many countries. "Missing passports create problems for fighting terrorism and human trafficking. For people involved with these types of crime a Norwegian passport can be extremely valuable," said captain Hans-Peder Torgersen at the international division of the NCIS.
The number of missing passports is growing every year. In 2005 a total of about 20,000 passports were registered missing, and most are not found. "Only around 1,800 reports of missing passports were canceled last year. That means that 90 percent of these passports do not turn up," Torgersen said.
| Brilliant guys, simply brilliant. |
"We report missing passports to Interpol. In this way information of stray passports are as available as possible internationally. But we are dependent on the control authorities in other countries when it comes to revealing abuse of Norwegian passports," Torgersen said. |