Passport forgery rife in Batam

Passport forgery rife in Batam

BATAM, Riau: The immigration office here is applying stricter
passport examination procedures to people leaving and entering
the island following reports that passport forgery was on the
rise.

A staffer at the office, Wachidyat, told Antara on Saturday
that security measures had been tightened in the past two weeks
after the arrest of a Chinese who was in possession of a fake
passport.

He said the bogus passport cost the Chinese Rp 1.5 million.

"People can easily obtain passports by merely replacing the
attached pictures with their own," he said.

He said the security measures had been ordered given the fact
that almost two million people traveled in and out of the
commercial island.