World Travel

The shadowy world of camouflage passports

October 28, 2021
James Robinson

(CNN) — “He has pulled a hand-grenade pin and he is completely ready to blow up the aircraft if he has to. We should, I repeat, we will have to land at Beirut.”

The hijacking of TWA Flight 847 on June 14, 1985 sent the entire world reeling.

It was a drawn-out horror show long lasting a fraught 17 days, which observed People singled out for beatings by their Hezbollah kidnappers, and the chilly-blooded murder of United States Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem.

Like tens of millions of other individuals, Donna Walker, a previous travel agent from Houston, Texas, watched as the scenes performed out on rolling information protection. As she did, Walker realized it was ultimately time to act on an plan she’d experienced a handful of a long time back again.

“It really is not counterfeit it is camouflage”

The 1980s was a troubling period for American tourists. Ever more, civilians discovered on their own the goal of terrorism. The New York Periods somberly summed up 1985 as “a 12 months of hijackings, kidnappings, vehicle bombings and murder”. But points experienced been acquiring poor prior to then.
6 a long time former to TWA Flight 847, the American Embassy in Tehran experienced succumbed to a 444-working day detainment of about 50 People in america by militarized students. It was during this episode that Walker initial hit on the strategy of a ‘camouflage passport’.

A counterfeit passport falsely claims the bearer is from a particular place, in order to get them by way of borders illegally.

The camouflage passport, however, used the title of a previous place, considering the fact that adjusted for political factors. It was not for crossing borders, possibly.

Walker surmised that if another person identified on their own in a existence-threatening predicament, they could current their aggressors with a authentic-hunting doc proclaiming they have been from, say, Rhodesia, somewhat than the US.

The aggressors would be persuaded this captive was of minor political heft, and perhaps afford to pay for them kinder treatment.

The hijacking of TWA Flight 847 in 1985 is said to have inspired a former travel agent to manufacture legal, 'camouflage' passports.

The hijacking of TWA Flight 847 in 1985 is mentioned to have impressed a former journey agent to manufacture lawful, ‘camouflage’ passports.

Alain Nogues/Sygma/Getty Photographs

In October 1987 Walker discussed to Time magazine how she’d confirmed she could manufacture bogus passports from “Ceylon,” simply because Sri Lanka — the place Ceylon turned in 1972 — no longer experienced declare to that title. The similar rule used to any erstwhile nation, from the British West Indies to Zaire.

Walker began selling the passports through her corporation, Intercontinental Paperwork Expert services, for $135 a pop (featuring a 30{e9f0aada585b9d73d0d08d3c277fd760092386ec23cac37d50f4b8cd792b062a} price cut for armed forces associates). The documents them selves, said Time, seemed impressively reliable: “Its burgundy, textured-vinyl address is stamped with gold lettering that reads, PASSPORT, REPUBLIC OF CEYLON.”

“It truly is not counterfeit it is really camouflage,” Walker insisted. And evidently the Condition Division had no beef with US citizens carrying the passports, both.

180 fictional passports

Walker’s phony passport notion wasn’t specifically initial. Tom Topol, who runs the Passport Collector web-site, points out that files that bend and split the rules have saved quite a few lives over the years.
“Schutz-Passes” are a fantastic instance these were Swedish passports issued to Hungarians by the diplomat Raoul Wallenberg at a time when 10,000 Hungarian Jews had been being sent to the gasoline chambers each working day. Nevertheless far more or considerably less invalid as passports, the paperwork have been commonly accepted by Nazi officials, sparing the deportation of hundreds of Hungarians to their likely fatalities.

Similar to the principle of camouflage passports, the “Schutz-Go” utilised the guise of an additional nationality to help the bearer swerve immediate hazard. Which begs the dilemma: did any of Walker’s camouflage passports at any time do what they were supposed to — preserve someone’s existence?

We know the thought took off, at least to some extent.

For just one issue, Walker stated she’d by now marketed all-around 350 camouflage passports in 1987 — numerous to US government officers. Glimpse at the European Commission’s list of 180 “fictional” passports and you are going to obtain a host of the camouflage variety, featuring Dutch Guiana, Eastern Samoa, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Gilbert Islands, and quite a few far more.
The UK’s HM Passport Office environment posted a similar (now archived) record, confirming camouflage passports were at the least “once in a while encountered.”
Jeffrey A. Schoenblum’s 2008 guide “Multistate and Multinational Estate Scheduling” indicates that adhering to the drop of the Berlin Wall, some German businesspeople — cautious of the reception they’d receive in other international locations — carried camouflage passports to “steer clear of unpleasantness… in specified elements of Europe with prolonged reminiscences.”
There is also a tale claiming a group of European oil executives made use of camouflage passports through the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, to achieve the safety of Jordan.

Obtaining nearly anything watertight, while, isn’t quick. A US Condition Division formal tells CNN Journey: “We do not observe any studies on the attempted utilization of camouflage and fantasy passports.” HM Passport Office is likewise guarded: “We really don’t challenge camouflage passports so would not be in a position to give comment.”

Just one rationale evidence is so thin on the ground, suggests Topol, is that wherever camouflage passports have labored, it hasn’t been documented for the security and safety of the person in concern.

Camouflage passports today

So what grew to become of the camouflage passport — are they however in circulation now?

As late as 2007, Barney Brantingham of the Santa Barbara Impartial was claiming camouflage passports kits — entire with a counterfeit driver’s license or other ID — could be sourced on the world wide web for $400 to $1,000. Fast ahead 14 yrs, and obtaining them isn’t really so straightforward.

There’s no Global Paperwork Providers anymore, no bona fide-looking web-site brazenly selling camouflage passports.

Which is regardless of them remaining ostensibly respectable. A agent of Own Security London — gurus in international travel protection — tells CNN that it stays technically legal to have a camouflage passport in nations including Australia, New Zealand and all European Union nations, so very long as it is exclusively utilized for self-preservation in a life or death scenario.

The point is, these documents may possibly not be as convincing as they had been 30 yrs ago. “With the introduction of biometric paperwork and innovations in doc safety actions these types of as watermarks and advanced holograms embedded in ID paperwork, it has come to be extra difficult to portray a camouflage passport as a valid doc,” suggests the Own Basic safety London spokesperson.

The European Commission's list of 180 'fictional' passports includes Dutch Guiana, Eastern Samoa and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

The European Commission’s list of 180 ‘fictional’ passports incorporates Dutch Guiana, Jap Samoa and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

leah abucayan/cnn illustration

You are going to have a lot more luck getting a single of the camouflage passport’s close cousins. Go again to that record of fictional passports from the European Fee and you will find another area titled: “Fantasy passports.”

In this article, you will find out the likes of “Hare Krishna Sect”, “Dukedom of New Sealand” and “Conch Republic Passport.”

The Conch Republic — like all these fantasy passport names — hardly ever existed as a recognized region it really is an option identity for the Florida Keys, ensuing from a tussle with the US govt in 1982.
Keys people argued they were being being “alienated as Americans” and hurled conch fritters and water balloons at a US Coastguard boat. A further display of solidarity to emerge from the chaos was the Conch Republic passport — which is even now in desire these days. For a mere $100, an “intercontinental-quality, thread-sewn” doc is yours.

Irrespective of fantasy passports’ usually sensible visual appearance — gold embossed crests, headshots, individual info, room for immigration stamps –you should not assume to be waved by way of by border safety. Which is not their meant use. But there is a twist in the tale.

Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the FBI reportedly approached the secretary-general of the Conch Republic, suspicious that a person of the airplane hijackers, Mohammad Atta, could have made use of a Conch Republic passport to enter the Usa.

Other tales advise instances when fantasy passports could have been employed to nefarious finishes — the antithesis of why camouflage passports themselves ended up produced in the very first spot.