Fake D.O.B yet real passort, impossible?

On 30th Oct 2007, an Indonesian was getting ready to fly back home to Surabaya, Indonesia after working in Penang, Malaysia until his work permit expire. When he approached the immigration counter with his passport, the officer couldn't believe at what he saw written on the passport. The Indonesian by the name of Yunus date of birth is written as 00-00-1961. Born in the month of 00 and on the date of 00? Acong, the officer on duty, convinced that it must be a fake passport and quickly report to his superior. Unbelievably, after examining the passport and checked at their system, they confirm that the passport is genuine!

Although cases like this surprises Acong and others, his superior with years of experience said this is very common. Indonesia, with more than 17,500 islands, it is the world's largest archipelago with an estimated population of more than 230 million citizens. Due to some political issue and problems with separatist in certain part of the country, they have a poor system to manage the database. The citizens don't have anything to proof their existence, except for a piece a birth certificate, but still they are some that did not receive any certification at all. Once this certificate is lost or destroyed, there is no way to identify their age and date of birth.

When their citizens apply for passport, and if they don't remember their date of birth and no documentation to proof it, officials will usually write the date as 1st or 31st, January or December with their estimated year of birth. For Yunus case, the official somehow decides to write as 00-00-1961, since Yunus only remember the year that he was born in but not the month and day.

Every year there are a few hundred thousand of Indonesians entering Malaysia to work as laborers and maids, legally and illegally. The immigration department in Malaysia found out that this was the 3rd time Yunus has entered Malaysia. The 1st time he came in illegally, was caught and deported back to his home country. The 2nd and 3rd time he entered with proper working documentations. Unable to find a job locally that can support his whole family, there is no surprise that Yunus will be returning to Malaysia anytime soon.


A special thanks to Acong for submitting this story personally.

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