The governing trade body on the world’s airlines stated yesterday that detecting fake or stolen passports borne by passengers is the responsibility of border police, not the airlines.
Tony Tyler, chief of the International Air Transport Association said this in Geneva, following speculation as to who should be held accountable for allowing two Iranian youths to board missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 with stolen passports.
Tyler, whose association counts 90% of the world’s airlines as members, added that only governments through their law enforcement agencies had access to huge official databases of stolen or lost travel documents to which to refer in determining the eligibility of a traveller to pass through security and identity checks.
“If there is a problem with border control and invalid passports, that is an issue which governments have to step up to and address,” he said.
The international police agency Interpol said only a handful of governments from its roster of 190 member nations actually use its database of lost or stolen travel documents at Interpol headquarters in Lyon, France.
The question of who should be blamed for the lapse in security which allowed the two Iranians on board Flight MH370 has been hotly debated since the information was revealed earlier this week. With his statements, Tyler and IATA implicitly exonerated Malaysia Airlines from that responsibility, placing the onus on the Royal Malaysian Police.
Story: Reuters
