Travel documents fraud – its scale, nature, and prevention in the activities of the European Union

Abstract

The main purpose of the considerations undertaken in the article is to present the problem of travel document fraud as a very common form of illegal crossing of the external borders of the European Union. The study presents the scale and nature of the use of false travel documents. The analysis covers the procedures in force in the years 2015 through 2018. EU travel documents are in high demand among fraudsters. At least three-quarters of the false documents detected at the external borders, as well as in the area without internal border controls, are forgeries of the documents issued by both EU Member States and Schengen Countries. The research conducted based on the data of the European Border and Coast Guard (Frontex) led to the conclusion that the introduction of more sophisticated security features, production methods, and document control systems constrict the forgery of a material document. As a result, the number of traditional frauds, i.e. forging or counterfeiting a given document, is decreasing, and what is increasing is the scale of other types of procedures, in which travel documents are used as a tool, an example of which is identity theft. The study intends also to present selected forms of prevention against travel document fraud, which are undertaken by the EU. For this purpose, the paper includes an analysis of the provisions of the 2016 socalled action plan to strengthen the European response to document fraud.