Why should a country update existing passports to machine readable passports or e-passports?
Today countries are facing a lot of threats that impact their national security e.g. a high level of mobility or the global terrorism. Secure identification of people is one of the keys to continue guaranteeing national security, efficiency and a free international movement of people. Thats why there is a worldwide move towards more secure travel documents that help to easily proof the identity of a person crossing a border. Beside these existing needs there are some international agreements that make the issuance of modern passport necessary for many countries: The ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) recommends all 189 member countries to issue machine readable travel documents from 2010. In addition the US government commits the 26 so called Visa Waver countries to issue biometric enabled E-Passports from October 2006. Thats why many governments are now facing the challenge to bring their passport system to a new level of technology and security.
