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On 29-30 November, Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, and Interpol held a conference on document fraud, jointly organized by the two agencies and hosted by the Portuguese authorities in Estoril.

The two-day conference brought together experts from around the world to discuss the phenomenon of fraudulent travel documents and ways to work together at the national, European and international level to combat this criminal activity.

The two organizations will expand their respective initiatives to improve frontline document checks and tackle document fraud, which facilitates serious crimes such as human trafficking and terrorism.

 “Document fraud is a global phenomenon, which requires a global response. The effective control of travel and identity documents at the borders is therefore a fundamental component of internal security and successful migration management. Particularly because of its importance for border control, Frontex stands at the forefront in the fight against document fraud at the European level,” said Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri during the opening speech.

To address this threat, Frontex has been active in combating document fraud at the external EU borders and on the secondary movements of irregular migrants. These activities include risk analyses, deploying document experts in joint operations, supporting the identification of migrants in hotspots and training border guards in Member States in detecting fraudulent documents.

Since May this year all these activities have been supported by a group of 85 experts in document fraud from European Union Member States.

“Interpol and Frontex have a long history of cooperation - throughout the last 8 years Interpol has assisted many Frontex operations at air, land, and sea borders within the EU. We are experiencing dramatic growth in humanitarian crises with people crossing borders seeking a better life, but also movement of criminals and terrorists that require Interpol to respond, in strong cooperation with its partners in the border management and security field,” added Cyril Gout, Assistant Director Forensics and Police Data Management from Interpol.

Speaking at the conference, Portugal’s Minister of Home Affairs Eduardo Cabrita, said: “Fraudulent documents constitute a threat to national security and also to the area of free movement of persons to which we are proud to belong. To fight this threat, quality of identity and travel documents has to be raised even more, national systems of entry and exit have to be further developed and integrated, and international cooperation has to be strengthened.”

In 2018, Frontex will establish a Centre of Excellence for Combating Document Fraud, which will support operations coordinated by the agency that address the challenges posed by document fraud.