KATHMANDU, JANUARY 19

The Department of Passports has registered the details of 18,771 missing or lost passports in the Interpol database through National Central Bureau under Nepal Police, which serves as a contact point for Interpol in 194 member countries.

As per Rule 26 of Passport Regulation, 2020, the DoP is required to update the details of lost passports immediately through the Interpol Section of Nepal Police and register it in the Interpol database upon receipt of information regarding the issue of lost passport. Nepalis living abroad can provide such information to the DoP through the missions concerned.

The Report on Nepal's Foreign Affairs (2020-21) released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs this week said the DoP had been sending details of lost passport to the Interpol on a regular basis.

Meanwhile, Nepal Police said more than two million Nepali passports had already been recorded in the Stolen and Lost Travel Document database of Interpol's General Secretariat in France.

Details of all the passports recorded at the DoP as stolen or lost are entered in the database. The database provides information to Interpol member countries about potential movement of criminals using stolen or lost passports to obfuscate their identity.

The database also helps keep track of human traffickers, smugglers, terrorists and those on the Interpol watchlist.

Mobile Interpol Network Database, popularly called MIND device, has also been brought into operation at the Immigration Office in Tribhuvan International Airport to nab criminals misusing stolen or lost passports.

MIND device helps in identifying such criminals. According to Nepal Police, the campaign was initiated after action was taken on the information that transnational criminal networks had been using stolen or lost passports of citizens belonging to South Asian and Southeast Asian countries to serve their purposes.

Almost all notices related to lost passport published in newspapers are fake, according to various sources.

Racketeers sell these passports and pay genuine passport holders to acquire duplicate copies. If a person is found to be using lost passport after submitting an application on it, he/she will be liable to legal action and deemed ineligible for travel to foreign countries.

A version of this article appears in the print on January 20, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.