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a number of forged passports had been given to foreign citizens as well as authorisation to leave the country to people who had legal suits pending. These irregularities were most prevalent in the regional office of Immigration in Cochabamba "the delivery of those passports to a number of Chinese citizens has brought in a sum of approximately US$ 50,000 which was divided among different authorities who had something to do with their issue.
The "South Chine Morning Post", a Hong Kong newspaper, revealed that the Director of the Immigration Department of that city, Mr. Mak Kwai-Yun, declared that some people who dealt in falsifying passports were apparently using passports stolen from official offices in Portugal and Bolivia. He added that during investigations which had been carried out by his office, they had confiscated some Bolivian passports and could therefore prove their autenticity but knew that the signatures and seals were forged. The same newspaper in its edition of August 28, informed that the "consulates of Polivia, Portugal and Thailand in Hong Kong were collaborating closely with the Immigration office in the investigation of these problems. It also pointed out that the Bolivian Honorary Consul in Hong Kong Mr T K Tan had given all his collaboration in order to capture people possessing the forged Bolivian passports. The newspaper adds "Mr Tan said that he had sent to the proper Bolivian authorities a number of forged passports in order to establish their origin. 19 blank sets had recently been discovered at the house of a forger in Hong Kong. The Immigration officials believe that these had been stolen from Immigration offices in Bolivia. Mr Tan said he had not yet received a reply to his enquiries from Bolivia.
A few days ago, we had an interview with Dr Guido Meruvia Gutierrez, Under Secretary of Immigration and drew his attention to all the details surrounding this proble. He promised to start a thorough investigation to find out who were the officials involved.
What is important now, is to investigate the legality or forgery of those passports which our Honorary Consul in Hong Kong sent copies of; find out who signed them and what seals were used; the origin of those passports and the people who were responsible for their sale or delivery in order to reach the forgers in Hong Kong.
These details should be sent
as soon as possible to Mr Tan, the Bolivian Consul to enable him to follow up the case in law in that Asian city. This will make it possible to unravel the mistery of this illicit transaction apparently carried out by Bolivian authorities.
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