9 February 2010
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INTERPOL is taking the unusual step of making public a letter which will be submitted to the editor of the Sunday Telegraph in the UK to correct the misleading impression given by the headline 'INTERPOL boss criticises immigrant checks' and the associated article in today's, Sunday 8 July edition. It would have been inappropriate to allow a week to pass before this matter was addressed.
I am writing to take issue with the misleading headline, 'INTERPOL boss criticizes immigrant checks' and the false impression given by the article following my in-depth interview with the Sunday Telegraph. My interview exposed glaring security gaps caused by countries’ failures to systematically use and consult global databases when trying to fight terrorism or to secure their national borders. The interview request was prompted by my Opinion Editorial entitled, ‘A New Antiterror Strategy,’ published in the International Herald Tribune last week, making the same points on a broader basis than were covered by the Sunday Telegraph interview. As the son of an immigrant and as the person who has led INTERPOL’s anti-terrorist fight since 2000, I find it very disappointing that a handful of suspected terrorists who happen to be immigrants and in the medical profession have caused apparent hysteria about the threat posed to any country by immigrants and foreign-born doctors, and I do not want myself or INTERPOL to be associated with such hysteria. The groups that the world community should target are al-Qaeda, al-Qaeda linked and al-Qaeda inspired terrorists, not immigrants or foreign-born doctors. It remains my firm belief that with tens of millions of foreign visitors per year, with millions of passports reported stolen and with the clear link between stolen passports and al-Qaeda linked terrorist activity, no country should take the risk of allowing travellers to cross its borders without having their passports checked against INTERPOL’s global database. Last year, the UK had more than 30 million visitors, not 30 million immigration applications. Yet, still today, only a few countries (currently only 17 out of INTERPOL’s 186 member countries) systematically check the passport numbers of incoming travellers against INTERPOL’s global Stolen and Lost Travel Documents database which has more than 15 million entries (including more than seven million passports). On the other hand, all countries systematically check our bags to see if we are carrying bottles of water or other liquids. These priorities seem misplaced. It is the failure to systematically check passports against a global database of stolen passports, not immigrants or foreign-born doctors, which poses the single greatest terrorist threat to the entire world. I also focused on the necessity to check global databases before issuing any kind of visa. Specifically, I cited the recent example of an Indian national who had applied for a visa to travel to the US - not to immigrate. The only way the US was able to learn that this same person had an outstanding 1995 arrest warrant for murder from Germany was by consulting INTERPOL’s global databases. Why? The arrest warrant for murder was issued neither by the country of his nationality, nor by the country of destination. Unfortunately, few countries consult global databases to check names or fingerprints before issuing visas. I also made clear that the UK has not shared its terrorist watch list with INTERPOL. Until this happens, any time another INTERPOL member country consults our database about any of the individuals on this watch list, INTERPOL will have to report that they are unknown, meaning that the UK might lose a significant investigative lead; the country consulting INTERPOL would obtain no or incomplete information; and the those individuals on the UK terrorist watch list would remain free to plan and carry out more terrorist attacks. Finally, I have put on record my personal view as INTERPOL’s Secretary General that the world’s governments are treating the role to be played by law enforcement globally in fighting terrorism as a problem that can be adequately dealt with by devoting only millions of dollars per year when in fact it is a billion dollar a year problem. It will take more than a billion dollars per year and a many-fold increase in human resources deployed internationally via INTERPOL to begin to fill the significant terrorist security gaps that currently exist worldwide. In my view, targeting or discriminating against immigrants and foreign-born doctors will have no meaningful impact on reducing the global terrorist threat.
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