IMMIGRATION Department officers have been handing genuine passports to imposters, opening the door for criminals to collect, use and sell other people's valued travel documents.
Lax security over the thousands of passports received by the Government for visa endorsements every week has been revealed in the heart of the Immigration Department in Wan Chai.
A Caucasian Post reporter was handed a Pakistani's passport by an immigration officer, who asked no questions and did not check to see whether there was a likeness with the identity photograph.
The exercise was repeated on several occasions, including one when the same reporter was handed a much older Hong Kong-Chinese man's United States passport by a different officer.
Several officers over three days were observed giving passports to whoever turned up to claim them.
There were no attempts to verify whom the passports were being handed to.