Shahida Tulaganova obtained 20 illegal passports - each from an EU country, including the UK - within months. Those in the trade told her to travel via sea or bus, saying port security was less stringent than airports. BBC News, 1 December 2006
Channel 4/More 4, 20 November 2006
The Guardian, 17 November 2006
The controversial e-passports contain radio frequency ID, or RFID, chips that the U.S. State Department and others say will help thwart document forgery. But Lukas Grunwald, a security consultant with DN-Systems in Germany and an RFID expert, says the data in the chips is easy to copy. "The whole passport design is totally brain damaged," Grunwald says. "From my point of view all of these RFID passports are a huge waste of money. They're not increasing security at all." Wired News, 3 August 2006
The scheme is part of an overhaul of the scandal-hit immigration service and includes plans for the automatic deportation of foreign prisoners ... "We will extend exit controls in stages based on risk, identify who overstays and count everyone in and out, while avoiding delays to travellers, by 2014," he said. He also unveiled new targets for dealing with asylum cases, with a pledge to tackle 90% of cases within six months by 2011, and a series of interim targets ... The measures come after Mr Reid's predecessor, Charles Clarke, was forced out of office in May over the system's failure to consider more than 1,000 foreign criminals for deportation. Since then, the immigration system has been hit by a number of other embarrassing revelations, including the news that five illegal immigrants had turned up to work as cleaners at the IND offices and allegations of "sex for asylum" deals at an immigration processing centre. Shortly after his appointment, Mr Reid admitted that the immigration system was "not fit for purpose" and had inadequate leadership. This came after Dave Roberts, the director of enforcement and removals at the IND, told the home affairs select committee he did not have "the faintest idea" how many illegal immigrants were in Britain. On Sunday, the committee said the immigration system was "clearly inadequate". The Liberal Democrats criticised the government's delay in tackling the problems and questioned whether Mr Reid's proposals would provide a solution. The party's home affairs spokesman, Nick Clegg, said: "It beggars belief that the government has taken nearly 10 years to sort out the administrative mess of our immigration system. The Guardian, 25 July 2006
The Home Office said the new passport - dubbed the ePassport - would be the "most secure ever produced by the UK". The "biometric" passport contains a chip storing a scan of their photograph and other personal details. BBC News, 24 July 2006
The shocking figure emerges today in a damning report by an all-party committee, which concludes that the enforcement of immigration law is "clearly inadequate" ... When an inquiry into one set of allegations found that staff had engaged in "unprofessional behaviour towards applicants", Tony McNulty, the then immigration minister, dismissed the episodes as "isolated incidents". Yet the Commons home affairs select committee report shows that 703 allegations were referred to the IND security and anti-corruption unit in 2004/5, of which 409 were investigated. A further 169 cases were sent to a second watchdog, the Immigration Service operational integrity unit, of which 120 were pursued. As a result, 31 employees have been referred for prosecution and 79 for disciplinary action. Hundreds of cases are still under investigation ... David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: "As recently as January, the Home Office was describing corruption in visa and immigration control as 'isolated incidents' yet 700 allegations among 15,000 staff is anything but isolated. It implies a fundamental problem at the heart of the immigration service." The Daily Telegraph, 22 July 2007
A BACKLOG of 5,000 passport applications has built up after serious problems developed with a computer system only weeks after the inception of a new online service. The Home Office agency in charge of issuing the travel documents has now withdrawn the online application service because of mounting difficulties in issuing passports. The Times, 11 July 2006
The Times, 19 June 2006
The duty on Jobcentres to hand over an NI number if an illegal migrant is working “really does not make sense”, an official at the Department for Work and Pensions admitted privately ... Six years ago Lord Grabiner, QC, urged the Government to tighten up procedures for issuing national insurance numbers ... “Applicant in employment and has falsified a genuine immigration document. Where Department of Work Pensions is satisfied as to the individual’s identity, a NINO (national insurance number) would be issued in this situation even if we have suspicions around his immigration status.” The Times, 1 June 2006
BBC News, 18 May 2006
The Independent, 14 May 2006
The Times, 3 May 2006
They estimate that the city is home to as many as 170 criminal gangs from 22 ethnic groups. Superintendent Bob Murrill, head of Operation Maxim, an initiative by the Metropolitan Police, the Immigration Service, the UK Passport Service and the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “It is out of control. Politicians, society and law enforcement in general need to wake up to exactly what is happening.” Maxim officers carried out nearly 100 operations and made more than 150 arrests in 2004. Most cases involved identity document fraud. Tarique Ghaffur, Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said: “There is a danger of us getting into a spiral of decline.” The Times, 26 April 2006
The Manchester-based Hallé had been due to visit the US next year for two concerts, including one at the Lincoln centre in New York, the country's principal classical music venue. But managers said yesterday they had cancelled the tour when they realised that the cost of arranging the visas, estimated at £45,000, would render the trip uneconomic. The Guardian, 30 March 2006
BBC News, 6 December 2005
European Biometrics Portal, 20 September 2005
The Times, 3 September 2005
Mahieddine Daikh, 35, who was born in Algeria but said that he became a British citizen two years ago, was stopped at Bangkok airport on Tuesday with 452 forged documents, officials said. He was found in possession of bogus French, Spanish, Portuguese and Belgian passports, which he is believed to have planned to sell in London ... Mr Daikh, who had been living in London for about seven years, said that he was to be paid £15,000 to act as a courier. He said that he was hired by someone in London but did not elaborate. The passports were bought from an unidentified Pakistani for £3,000 on the island of Samui, south of Bangkok, he told police. The Times, 4 August 2005
Home Office documents confirmed the previous best guess of £88 had not included VAT and other extras. The Times, 25 May 2005
The Commons Public Accounts Committee blames the Home Office for allowing 7,000 unskilled Bulgarians and Romanians to enter Britain on visas meant for entrepreneurs. The row over the Bulgarians and Romanians led to the resignation of Beverley Hughes, the Immigration Minister, last April. Applicants including a one-legged “roofer” and failed asylum-seekers were granted entry as self-employed businessmen, despite advice from embassy staff that they should be turned away. The Times, 1 March 2005
According to the BBC, the head of the charity allegedly told the reporter: “This man can help you get a job and he can help you get documents,” before handing over contact details and quoting a price of £1,000 for a fake passport. The Sunday Times, 27 February 2005
The Times, 21 February 2005
BBC News, 1 December 2004
Almost all British passports issued since 1991 are machine-readable, indicated by two lines of coded data at the bottom of the photo page. BBC News, 29 October 2004
The Home Office warned US-bound travellers that from yesterday they must have a machine-readable passport or visa to enter the country. The Times, 27 October 2004
BBC News, 21 October 2004
BBC News, 29 September 2004
The Times, 10 April 2004
The Times, 29 February 2004
Forged documents worth more than £5m were found at a house in Croydon during an immigration raid in June last year. They included 1,335 fake passports and ID cards and 2,000 credit cards. BBC News, 27 February 2004
BBC News, 17 February 2004
The Times, 17 January 2004
BBC News, 15 September 2003
"This is the mother of all projects — there's no question about it," said Joseph Atick, chief of Identix, a maker of biometric systems. With fingerprint and face scanners due to be in place at air and sea ports by the end of this year and biometric visas and passports beginning to get into the hands of travelers next year, U.S. officials hope to keep the wrong people out while letting the right people in without delay. USA Today, 24 August 2003
In February, National Crime Squad (NCS) officers discovered a forgery factory at the men's home in Bournemouth, Dorset, and recovered around 300 items, including 38 false passports from seven different countries. BBC News, 19 May 2003
Hundreds of forged and stolen documents, including passports and sophisticated computer equipment have been seized by the National Crime Squad (NCS) ... Officers also seized an immigration stamp, forged college certificates and utility bills in the raid which was part of Operation Calligram. BBC News, 6 February 2003
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