Peeling pasports cause an L of a mess

By STEVE HART

When Paul Nujnovich arrived for his flight to Sydney last week he was looking forward to meeting colleagues for business meetings and taking time out in Melbourne.

After queuing to check in at Auckland International Airport - passport and tickets in hand - he knew he was just moments away from the departure lounge where he could sit down and read his favourite magazine.

What could go wrong? It was a trip he'd done many times before and, after all, it was just across the Tasman.

But a less-than perfect laminating machine used by the Department of Internal Affairs in Wellington years earlier was about to cast a shadow over his plans.

"I handed over my passport and after a bit of dithering and behind-the-scenes conversation was told that because some of the laminate was peeling away near where my photo is I wouldn't be allowed to go any further," said Nujnovich.

"They wouldn't let me through even though I have used the passport many times before.

"The check-in representative told me I was the 10th person turned away by him that day and it's happening frequently."

Heightened security measures mean passports are being scrutinised more than ever and any evidence that could be interpreted as tampering means travellers will be turned away.

"Thai Airways was fantastic," said Nujnovich. "They arranged another flight for me while I spent three hours getting an emergency travel document which cost $160, and then I had to call everyone I was seeing to change meeting times.

"I understand the security concerns but there has been no publicity about this issue. And what would happen if I had been getting a flight to Europe, perhaps in an emergency situation? Being stopped like this would be intolerable.

"Travel agents and the Government must do something to warn people of this problem."

Passports that are prone to peeling are those issued in Wellington, Sydney and London between April 1993 and May 1997 and have the prefix letter L in the serial number. A new production system installed in 1997 stopped the problem.

Of the more than one million produced during that time about 3000 will be affected, says Tony Wallace of Internal Affairs. "We are aware of the problem now but didn't realise it would be an issue back in the 90s when they were being made."

He says some people with peeling passports may be able to get a free replacement if the peeling is due to faulty manufacturing, rather than wear and tear.

Because of the small number affected, the department decided to wait to be contacted by people on a case-by-case basis rather than recall all "L" passports. Unfortunately, those people only realise their passports won't be accepted at a crucial time - at the airport check-in.

"We are advising customs and immigration officials that a problem exists with some passports and asking them to look out for them," said Wallace. "We are also providing a 24-hour emergency number for passport holders to call in New Zealand.

For more information call 0800 22 50 50.

* From October 1 all New Zealand citizens travelling to, or through, the US must have a machine-readable passport to satisfy US visa waiver requirements. Machine-readable passports have serial numbers starting with: either the letter X, L, N, or F or the letters AA.