Report: Stolen passports handed back

WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 (UPI) -- Border staff sometimes have no choice but to hand back stolen or forged travel documents to those using them, so they can leave the country, say U.S. officials.

"Many countries will not allow people to enter without a passport," Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Clarke Kent Irvine explained to United Press International. He said that when immigration inspectors found people using lost, stolen or forged passports, they often had no choice but to allow them to use the documents to return to their country of departure.

"It does happen," confirmed Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Policy and Planning Stewart Verdery.

"But," he added, " -- and make sure you quote the whole sentence -- it happens very rarely. And when it does, we give the passport to the airline, not to the traveler."

The alternative, he explained, would be to keep the traveler in detention, in a legal limbo that could take years to resolve, at the expense of the U.S. taxpayer.

"We are working to deal with this," he said, "but it is complicated. It is international law."

Thursday, Verdery told a House panel that the United States was also working with countries in the so-called Visa Waiver Program to improve the exchange of information about lost and stolen passports.

Under the program, passport-holders from 27 countries can enter the United States without a visa.