Thousands of passports disappear every year

Alarmed politician wants an explanation

The number of Danish passports that have been stolen or lost has doubled in ten years, according to metroXpress newspaper.

Last year 34,949 Danes reported to the police that their passports were either stolen or had gone missing, according to police statistics, while just 19,257 were reported in the same way in 2003.

The passport issue has surfaced in the wake of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 going missing last weekend with 239 people on board. Two of the passengers were flying on stolen Italian and Austrian passports.

READ MORE: False passport holder on missing plane was headed for Copenhagen

Alarming figures
Tom Behnke, a spokesperson for Konservative, said that the increase is too high and called for an explanation.

“The rise over these few years is alarming. We need to find out if it is the same people who continuously lose their passports,” Behnke said. “One could easily suspect that they are selling their passports to others.”

In 2012, 36,363 Danish passports were reported missing, but it turned out that 163 were lost in the mail.

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