OSLO, Sept. 2 -- An immigrant family used three fake passports allegedly produced in another European country to apply for asylum in Norway, newspaper Aftenposten reported Sunday.
The passports are illegally sold for 7000 euros and 4000s euro for each grown up and child, respectively.
According to Norwegian National ID center, the authorities revealed 996 false IDs used by 821 persons in 2016, which was 201 more than the year before. This increase was linked to the great arrival of refugees in the autumn of 2017.
The number of illegal documents detected in Norway was somewhat smaller last year, as 758 people used them to arrive in Norway, the report said.
New biometric passports have become more difficult to fake, Per O. Haddal, Head of Division at the National ID Center, told the newspaper.
However, the criminals have nowadays easier access to advanced computer technology, printers and scanners and it is only a matter of time before they manage to "break the code" for faking them, he added.
"Everything that can be produced by a pass manufacturer can also be reproduced," Haddal said, emphasizing the importance of continuous development of documents security.
On the other hand, the more advanced a passport is, the easier it will be for those who control passports to detect fake ones. Having that in mind, the National ID Center has since 2017 held courses for about 6,600 people in police and administration ID work. The center also promoted more use of biometrics technology, such as facial recognition.