Up to 60,000 Swedish passports replaced for being lost or stolen in 2013

Friday, 12 July 2013
Swedish people have been very careless with their passports in the past years leading to increased replacement of passports. In 2013, up till 60000 Swedish people applied for a new passport as a result of the old one being stolen or lost.
Within a very short time  some people have replaced their passports up till 20 times - passport believed to end up in the hands of human smugglers or other forms of criminals such as those who can clone them and use in another EU country.
The Swedish police have now started investigating what is being quietly described as a scandal in the Swedish passport arena.

In recent years, the number of Swedish passport that had been reported stolen or lost has risen sharply. From approximately 45 700 in 2008 to this year's forecast of over 60 000.
Swedish boarder police official, Bengt Hellgren at the airport told Swedish television that the passports could be very useful for people smuggling. "We have several cases a week. From across Europe, police have received reports that which revealed that Swedish passports have been involved in human smuggling. In fact, Swedish passports are among the most common among smugglers. The explanation is that the Swedish legislation around lost passports is among the most liberal in Europe."

"All Swedish citizens have a right to have a passport and to always get it renewed or a new one if the old one is lost, - no matter how many times they loose it," says Soren Clerton, head of the central border control at the National Police, and continues:
"But it is clear that it is not usually careless citizens who report that they have lost their passport 20 times.
He adds that the police have several examples of people who in a short time have taken out many passports - up to 20 items.
by Scancomark.com Team