OTTAWA  |  Jan. 31, 2003 — With security so tight at airports and border crossings these days, it's hard to believe that anyone can send away for an official looking passport from a country that no longer exists. 

Companies such as Privacy World and Vista International Success Agency Ltd., claim the "camouflage passports" — from places like Dutch Guiana, British West Indies or Zanzibar — can be useful to people travelling in countries that are hostile towards Westerners.

Vista boasts that its passports come with various visa and entry/exit stamps

It's legal in Canada to have one of the passports - but not to use it.

Because the documents  carry the owner’s real name and photo, there's no identity fraud, says Reynald Doiron, spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

He says it's the responsibility of the country that issues a passport to ensure the document isn't misused. But the country of "issue" with these passports is no longer that country.

"Say for instance you are talking about (a passport from) Rhodesia. You would have to talk to the High Commission of Zimbabwe," Doiron says.

Scared to sell

One Canadian company that was planning to sell fake passports has backed off.

"It is a problem product, and I will never sell it," says Robert Savoie, general manager for the Montreal-based Consultant Executif, which sells products from an online company called Offshore Manual.

"Too many people are asking questions. Even if it is legal, there are too many questions. I don’t want to be involved with bad things or bad people."

Links to al-Qaeda

Fake passports are popular with members of al-Qaeda, and other terrorist groups have been found using fake passports which have even fooled customs officials.

Vista has boasted on its Web site that its passports come with, "various visa and entry/exit stamps and features the country’s official seal along with a special security hologram," to make it look more realistic.

Management at Ottawa's Macdonald-Cartier airport are unable to explain how customs officials check to make sure passports are from countries that still exist. At the time of publication, management had not returned telephone calls.

Many of the sites selling these passports warn against trying to pass them off as legitimate. On its Web site, Privacy World states that people occasionally try to use these passports to cross borders. "We frown upon such a practice as it only makes life difficult for all bona-fide people involved in using (camouflage passports)."

On its Web site, Offshore Manual asks, "You can never actually know before some nasty streak of events whether you are really in safety or not, can you? What if your country's regime changes over night?" 

The company claims that, with their passport, Western tourists are less likely to be seen as easy targets for theft or kidnapping in hostile nations.

Based in St. Lucia and with a processing centre in Frankfurt, Vista sells a host of phony documents, including some with dubious claims. For $61,000, the company sells what it claims is diplomatic immunity. Along with this comes a "diplomatic pouch" which can weigh as much as 225 kilograms, and is not allowed to be opened by border guards or customs officials. 

"This looks to me like a real phony operation ... but I don’t think any Canadian law would be broken." Doiron says. He points out that anyone trying to use these passports would be "the laughing stock of the country’s authorities (at border-entry points). I don’t know anyone who would accept those as real documents."

Related Links PrivacyWorld Vista International Success Agency Ltd. Offshore Manual