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.