Use of fake travel documents on the rise

Over 50 fake travel documents have been found by authorities since the beginning of the year, police reported on Tuesday, while numbers over the last three years have drastically increased.

People using the documents were stopped found at Larnaca and Paphos airports, while in 2022 authorities uncovered 550 such incidents.

Since 2020, cases of fake travel documents have risen drastically, police figures showed.

In 2020, there were only 80 cases recorded, while the next year 300, and in 2022 the total of 550.

The majority of people attempting to use fake documentation are African asylum seekers trying to get to countries in central Europe.

The documentation in most cases is either fake or real documentation, which has had the picture cut out and swapped with that of the individual attempting to use it.

In most cases, the documentation they use is a passport, ID, or permanent resident card from France, Belgium or Germany.

According to a report in daily Politis, the majority of false documentation comes from the north, while in some cases people use the dark web to buy stolen passports.

A third source of receiving false documents is also from relatives, who send the users the documentation from their countries of origin.