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Homeland security is top priority at Dubai Airport

The General Directorate for Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai, GDRFA-Dubai, is sparing no efforts to ensure homeland security by using the highest technological standards at Dubai Airport that can detect even highly sophisticated fake passports, a senior official said today.

Major General Mohammed Al Marri, Director General of the GDRFA-Dubai, added that the passports’ control officers at the airport are well trained on how to identify forged passports quickly and efficiently.

“We invest in our staff to get good skills. The officer must be able to recognise the security features of any passport in the world,” he said.

According to statistics released by the GDRFA in Dubai, a total of 47,910 suspected documents were inspected by the Expertise Centre Identity and Fraud Documents (ECIFD) system at Dubai International Airport in 2014 compared to 64,652 in 2013.

Captain Abdullah Mohammad Al Mutawa, Director of ECIFD of the General Directorate for Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai, said that visitors trying to enter the country using fake identity documents are being easily exposed at the airport, due to the high-tech passport-reading and biometrics technology system designed to identify fraud. The ECIFD was established in 2010.

Captain Al Mutawa said a total of 1,027 fake documents were discovered by the ECIFD in 2014 compared to 968 fake documents seized in 2013, and out of the 1,027 fake documents 818 were forged, 24 were documents with some changes and 185 were those used by someone else other than the original owner.

He added that out of 968 fake documents caught in 2013, 765 were forged, 34 were documents with some changes and 169 were those used by someone else other than the original owner.

Captain Al Mutawa said usually those who try to enter the country using fake passports are send back immediately to the country they came from.

“The centre helps verify the identities of millions of travellers passing through Dubai airport each year,” he said, adding that the ECIFD stores data on travel documents and identity cards from over 200 countries. It has a library of sample documents and forgeries.

He explained that the training centre of ECIFD develops and maintains a high level of expertise in relation to document checks on national and international investigation, and training on body language is also very important for passport control officers.

“We train the officers not only on recognising forged documents but also we train them on customer service,” he said, adding, “We want them to be very friendly because they are the first people visitors meet when they enter the country. The officers at the airport make the first impression on visitors,” he said.

First Lieutenant Khalifa Juma Harran, General Training Coordinator, said that all the training programmes are delivered by Emirati trainers and the training courses are divided into three levels, the first level is aimed at passport control counter employees, the second level is for supervisors of passports control counters, while the third level is designed for laboratory employees to analyse suspected passports.

He said the basic level or the front-officer training is to help the staff to identify a forged passport and if the front officer has any doubt, then it goes to the advanced level where there will be specific equipment to inspect the suspected passports, and finally the suspected passport may go to the third level or the expert level and at this stage the officer must make a decision about the suspected travel document.

Major General Obaid bin Surour, Deputy Director of the GDRFA-Dubai said that through the GDRFA, the UAE is a contributing member of the Electronic Documentation Information System on Network (Edison) Travel Documents Section Committee.

The Edison is a kind of library developed by five countries, the US, Australia, Canada, The Netherlands and the UAE, the only Arab country who can use this system. These countries continually update the database to help in efficient verification of documents.

• UAE