Hochiminh city, April 2016

IOM is working with local Vietnamese authorities to help combat the use of fraudulent travel documents and, through support from the Canadian Government, provided specialized equipment and biometric software to help identify imposters and persons travelling on altered on counterfeit passports. 

This equipment was deployed today at Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Nhat airport following an earlier release at Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi. The impressive equipment, software and training will help the airport's checkpoint authorities identify fraudulent documents by looking at multiple aspects of passenger biometrics and passport security features. 

The IOM program is funded by the Canadian government's Anti-Crime Capacity Building program. Since 2014 the equipment has been rolled out in thirteen countries throughout the Asia-Pacific region, and has helped authorities identify and catch thousands of fraudulent passports.

Pictured from left are Pham Quoc Hung, Deputy Chief of Tan Son Nhat Airport Checkpoint; Mark Brown, IOM HCMC's Head of Office; Richard Bale, Consul General of Canada in HCMC; Paul Bernard, from the Canadian Consulate in HCMC; and Anote Chanopas, IOM Bangkok's Information Management Assistant.