Why SafeTravellers? An Interview with End-Users

What issues is SafeTravellers addressing? We spoke with three of our end-user partners, Polícia Judiciária (Portugal), the Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic, and the Ministry of the Interior of Finland to find out about their motivations for joining the project and the issues they are facing in border crossing and identity management. From identity crimes to societal issues, this brief interview dives deeper into the project’s core impacts and the current situation of identity verification.

Q: What were your reasons for joining the SafeTravellers consortium?

Polícia Judiciária (Portugal): The main reason for Polícia Judiciária’s participation in SafeTravellers is to provide consulting and technical input regarding Security Documents and Document Fraud.

Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic: The decisive objective was to improve border controls in the fight against identity theft, human trafficking, and illegal migration, considering the core objectives of the project:
1. Provide Frictionless Border Crossing for EU citizens and Third-Country nationals (TCNs),
2. Strengthen border security,
3. Improve efficiency for Border Authorities and LEAs based on novel mechanisms to detect identity & travel document fraud and attacks on biometric systems.

SafeTravellers proposes a new trustworthy way to identify citizens based on multi-modal biometrics instead of a counterfeitable identity document and improves traditional identity verification at borders through a set of tools aimed at detecting attacks on biometric hardware, ID & travel document fraud, and attempts to falsify biometric data.

Ministry of the Interior of Finland: [We joined SafeTravellers] to be able to take part in the development of new technologies and, that way, also bring the North European voice to this development. Border security questions are highly important in Finland as we have a long non-Schengen-border, and it is important for us to be a part in the development of border security solutions with other EU countries.

Q: According to you, what are the main weaknesses of identity documents? What identity related crimes are you hoping to remedy?

Polícia Judiciária (Portugal): According to Scientific Police Laboratory (LPC) experts, a main weakness of identity documents is that without at least one strong security element, they are more susceptible to be forged or tampered with. Genuine identity documents obtained based on fraudulent breeder documents (e.g., birth, marriage and death certificates, etc.) are also a current and worrying issue. Additionally, the usual kind of identity related crimes are identity theft, misuse of an identity document by an impostor, and genuine documents obtained though false breeder documents.

From January 1st to May 23rd 2024, 391 cases of document fraud were detected at Lisbon’s Airport border. Of those cases, 25% were documents completely forged, 22% were cases of misuse of a document by an impostor and 24% were undocumented travellers (see graph below).

Document Fraud at Lisbon Airport, 2023-2024. Polícia Judiciária

Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic:
In this context, the following occurred to us: measures of photographs, lack of security features in documents, often missing secondary picture in documents, and the possibility of an increase of corruption in connection with various state and public authorities responsible for issuing documents (e.g. Residence permit CZE/DEU/AUT… or CZE passport).
The rapid progress in document forgers and their ability to adapt quickly to changes is also an issue we consider.

Ministry of the Interior of Finland: [Identity documents] can be stolen, destroyed or forged, although forging is not very easy because of the biometric data. One might also use another person’s documents, at least in cases where identification does not include biometric identification. According to the Criminal Code of Finland, offences related to identity related crimes are forgery, possession of forgery material and identity theft are offences that are related to identity. Offences like state border offence, violation of an entry ban, and facilitation of illegal entry relate to identity issues as well.

Some offences known to the Finnish Police or the Border Guard in 2021-2023, Statistics Finland
The material was downloaded from Statistics Finland interface service on 3 December 2024 under licence CC BY 4.0

What other areas of security would you link the project to?

Polícia Judiciária (Portugal): We would link SafeTravellers to the fight against terrorism, given the dynamics of international security. Protecting the EU against the implications of existing and emerging problematic situations at external borders means that it is necessary to have the ability to combat terrorism and crime, as well as cyber, health, and hybrid threats.

Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic: There are additional related risks with AI, hackers, etc…

Ministry of the Interior of Finland: Border control issues are always linked to the question of national security. Trustworthy identification process is also a question of crime prevention, especially crimes like forgery and identity thefts. Crime prevention on a border also prevents terrorism and organized crime as the identification process indicates attempts to cross the border illegally. The border control process may also indicate situations where people are trying to transport across the border other people who do not have travel documents (facilitation of illegal entry).

If you have any questions or comments, please contact us at press.safetravellers@inov.pt.

Thank you to Lúcia Lebre (Policia Judiciaria), Martin Borza (Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic), and Helinä Tiura-Virta (Ministry of the Interior of Finland) for their contribution.