The British Consulate-General is to install new technology by the end of the year that should make the British National (Overseas) passport it issues harder to forge, officials said yesterday.
The move comes after British officials expressed concern that the BNO passport was becoming the false document of choice for 'snakeheads' smuggling illegal Asian immigrants into the United Kingdom and Europe.
Three million BNO passports have been issued to Hong Kong residents, most of whom also qualify for SAR passports issued by Beijing. Britain's National Criminal Intelligence Service believes many Hong Kong residents are tempted to sell their BNO passports to snakeheads as they can still travel with their SAR documents.
Despite the growing concerns, the Security Bureau said yesterday that BNO passports accounted for only about five per cent of the 1,717 forged travel documents seized in the first six months of the year.
The new technology would involve digitised photographs and signatures that were almost impossible to fake, a consulate spokeswoman said.
Announced in October 1998, the new security features have been implemented in Britain for the past year. As the Hong Kong consulate is Britain's largest passport-issuing post outside the UK, the technology would be installed by the end of the year, the spokeswoman said.
