Phuket: When a German tourist refused to surrender his passport as collateral at a car rental stand along a popular beach in the Thai resort city of Phuket, the woman behind the counter pulled out a bag full of passport books to prove he could trust her.
But the tourist, Falko Tillwich, was insistent. "I said absolutely not ... No way," he recalled, and later handed over his driver`s license instead.
Tillwich`s concern: losing vital travel documents, or worse having them stolen by criminal syndicates that are exploiting lax law enforcement and corrupt police here to support a global network of human smugglers, fugitives and sometimes, terrorists.
Those worries were heightened this week after investigations into Malaysian jetliner that went missing March 8 with 239 people aboard revealed two Iranian citizens had boarded the flight with passports stolen from tourists in Thailand.
Investigators say it was unlikely the two men had links to terrorism and appeared to be illegal migrants trying to get to Europe. However, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Saturday authorities were re-examining the list of crew and passengers after deciding the plane had deliberately changed course after taking off from Kuala Lumpur on the way to Beijing.
Passport theft is "a very big and critical problem in Thailand," said police Maj Gen Apichart Suribunya, who serves as Thailand`s Interpol director. "It is a problem that Interpol, the United Nations and the international community have been trying to solve for years."
So far, with limited success.
Thailand`s sapphire blue waters, wildlife parks, delicious cuisine and raunchy red light districts have attracted tourists for decades.
Last year alone, 22 million foreign visitors made the trip. That means "there are more passports to steal in Thailand than other countries in the region," said Clive Williams, a counterterrorism expert at Australia`s Macquarie University.
Phuket is one of Thailand`s tourism honeypots. Tourists flock here in droves each year for its sun, sand and laid back ambience. And some, like Italian Luigi Maraldi, lose their passports along the way.
In Thailand, passport forgers now use advanced technology, and their clients can evade capture by selling them to lookalikes who resemble the owners.
A senior Thai intelligence official, who has spent years hunting down passport theft rings, said investigators are currently tracking about 10 major syndicates in Thailand.
Most were run by nationals from Pakistan, India, Iran or Central Asia he said, for clients that are mostly illegal migrants.
The fact that travel documents are often stolen or forged in one country and used in another, though, "makes it hard for the governments to follow and arrest them," he said.
