Govt plans new passport with embedded microchips
Govt plans new passport with embedded microchips
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government plans to introduce a new kind of passport with a
microchip embedded in it starting next year in a bid to curb the
use of fake documents commonly used by high profile criminals to
flee the country and avoid charges.
Minister of Justice and Human Rights Hamid Awaluddin said on
Wednesday the new passport would use an automatic fingerprint
identification system that would be connected to all offices
issuing passports in Indonesia and embassies abroad.
"As the current contract for firms supplying passport
materials will end, we will soon open a tender for vendors to
provide the infrastructure to support this goal. We're drawing up
the technical specifications," he told House of Representatives
Commission III on legal and human rights affairs during a
hearing.
While it was not immediately clear whether the existing fee
for a new passport would be affected, Hamid said current passport
holders may voluntarily seek to replace theirs with the new ones
once the new system was in place or wait until theirs expired.
The new type will have a microchip that contains personal
information and the fingerprints of the bearer.
Currently, there is no such a digital, interconnected
database, making it possible for people to apply for multiple
passports under different names.
This, Hamid said, was compounded by the fact that one person
can easily possess multiple identification cards, birth
certificates or family cards -- the required documents to apply
for a passport -- issued by the local administration.
The police recently arrested Sudrajat, a major suspect in a
drug case, who had five different passports. Four were issued by
the West Jakarta immigration office, and the other one was by the
Central Jakarta office.
Multiple passports issued to one person, according to
Immigration Director General Imam Santoso, has also hampered
government efforts to control those who may have been banned from
traveling abroad due to involvement in criminal cases.
"Thus, this new system is essential to support other judicial
mechanisms," he said.
The e-passport, said Imam, has become mandatory for countries
under the International Civil Aviation Organization. The forum
announced last year that such a passport should be in use by
October 2010 at the latest.
A total of Rp 2 trillion (US$198 million) will be allocated to
finance a total revamp of the country's immigration
infrastructure, said Hamid, and would be carried out over a
period of five years.
Besides renewing the passport system, the revamp would include
better travel ban supervision and state border management.