After five years of extended discussions and cancelled tenders, Turkey was finally able to launch its biometric passport system eight months ago. Taking the current demand into consideration, 5 million biometric passports that have already been produced are expected distributed to Turkish citizens by 2013.
The biometric passports were adopted as part of the European Union harmonization laws. At the moment, Turkey is seeking to launch the latest and most advanced technology in biometric passports, to be put in place after 2013. Turkey plans to establish a new system to pave the way for faster production of biometric passports using high-tech devices. For this purpose, a delegation from the Foreign Ministry recently attended to a fair in France. The delegation also visited passport producing facilities in Greece, Poland, Switzerland and the US and it will pay a visit to the UK in order to see passport production systems and the devices.
Turkey uses the same system as France for producing biometric passports. While noting that France has not yet begun to use the system of industrial printing either, officials said the current system in Turkey will still be viable for a long time. If the country makes the passports using the industrial printing system and prepares the page where personal information is located with polycarbonate and laser engraving, it will be among the few nations in the world to use such a high-tech system. Although Turkey has its eye on more advanced technologies, Foreign Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Koru has emphasized that the current biometric passport system has not encountered security problems.
At Turkey’s passport production facility in Gölcük, an average of 5,000 to 6,000 passports are made every day and this figure increases to 13,000 during busy times such as the Hajj season. A total of 270 people are employed at the facility. The passports are delivered to their owners within four days of applying.
A biometric passport, also known as an e-passport or ePassport, is a combined paper and electronic passport that uses biometrics to authenticate the identity of the traveler. It uses contactless smart card technology, including a microprocessor chip (computer chip) and antenna (both to power the chip and for communication) embedded in either the front or back cover, or the middle page, of the passport.
---
Autor(en)/Author(s): Ali Aslan Kiliç
Quelle/Source: Today's Zaman, 26.02.2011
Bitte besuchen Sie/Please visit:
