A United States government report has warned Islamic State has been printing false Syrian passports in order to successfully travel into the US and other major countries.

Reports allege ISIS has acquired a passport printing machine, and the US government has tracked down 3,800 fake passports entered into immigration databases.

US Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) says Islamic State has at least one specialised printing machine used to print authentic Syrian passports, and a large number of blank passports.

Passport printing is a highly technical and specialised field. The dedicated passport presses are mainly manufactured by KBA or Komori.

A HSI report says boxes of blank passports were seized during a raid in Deir ez-Zor last year, and warns printing of false documents will continue to increase.

“If ISIS ability to produce passports is not controlled, their operations will continue to increase and expand outside of their operational controlled areas,” the report says.

The passport printers are believed to have been sourced from inside Syria, and are capable of manufacturing the specialised authentic passports.

Counterfeit Syrian passports have also been found in Europe, most notably two used by suicide bombers in the terrorist attack on Paris last month. 

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