What could go wrong?
More Swedish passports reported “missing”
Published: lördag 18 januari kl 12:26 , Radio Sweden
The passport might be real, but does it really belong to the person holding it? Photo: Rikspolisstyrelsen / TT
An increasing number of Swedish passports are being registered lost or stolen, Swedish television SVT reports.
A total of 177,000 passports are now unaccounted for. Police suspect some of them are ending up in the hands of criminal gangs and people smugglers.
“Swedish passports are safe, they aren’t often forged. Instead people use ‘look-a-likes'”, deputy police commissioner Sören Clerton from the National Criminal Police tells SVT, “they sell the passport to someone that looks like the person on the passport photo, so they can get into Sweden”, he adds.
Passports can sell for as much as SEK 80,000, according to SVT.