More Dominicans with altered prints seek passports, official warns

Santo Domingo.- Passports Dept. director Iris Guaba on Sunday alerted prosecutors that surgeons are altering the fingerprints of people in the Dominican Republic.

She said the increasing number of citizens requesting passports with altered fingerprints have raised flags in all of the agency’s departments. "We’re sending the cases to the Justice Ministry so they can determine what to do with the lagoon in the Passport Law which doesn’t stipulate those cases as a criminal offense."

"If a citizen’s prints don’t coincide with Central Electoral Board data or with what’s in the system from their previous passport, the case is sent to the Justice Ministry at once," the official said, interviewed by Greysis de la Cruz on Channel 26.

She said however that while the country’s passports have all the features international organizations require, “Dominican Republic’s passport doesn’t comply with all security levels the new times demand."

"Our passport complies with international security requirements such as intaglio, waterproof hologram, watermarks, but it needs to be adapted to new technology and have the citizen’s fingerprints and signature stored in a chip to adapt it to our platform."