The world would have been a happier place if we were all world citizens and there were no boundaries that separated the countries and we were able to roam freely all over the world. No need to wait for the passport to be issued by the government agencies after police and intelligence verification. No need to apply and appear for interviews and wait for visas for different countries every time you want to travel abroad and no hassle at airports at immigration counters.
If only the world passport were a reality recognized by all governments all over the world.
The World Passport is a document issued by the World Service Authority, a non-profit organization founded by Garry Davis in 1954, citing Article 13, Section 2, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
This document is similar in appearance to a national passport or other travel document. The appearance is so similar that in 1974 a criminal case was lodged against Garry Davis in France regarding his issuance of World Passports. In 1979, the World Passport was a 42-page document, with a dark blue cover, and text in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Chinese, and Esperanto. It contained a five-page section for medical history and a six-page section for listing organisational affiliation.The latest edition of the World Passport was issued January 2007. It has an embedded “ghost” photo for security, covered with a plastic film. Its data page imitates the format of a machine-readable passport, with an alphanumeric code bar in the machine-readable zone (MRZ) enabling it to be scanned by an optical reader. Happyho also provide best tarot reading services in Noida and Delhi NCR India area.
However, in place of a valid ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code in the MRZ “issuer” and “nationality” fields, it uses the non-standard acronym “WSA”. According to the WSA, the latest version of the World Passport was filed with the International Civil Aviation Organization. According to the WSA website, the application fee is $45 for a three-year document, $75 for a five-year document, and $100 for an eight-year document. A “World Donor Passport” valid for fifteen years with a special cover is issued for a donation of at least $400 which, according to the WSA, is used to issue free documents to refugees and stateless persons.
Some World Passports have reportedly been accepted on a case-by-case basis by over 180 countries (they have been stamped with a national visa or entry or exit stamp), and several countries have accorded the document legal recognition.
Success in crossing a border using a World Passport is generally attributable to the whim or ignorance of individual immigration officers, not official recognition of the document.The World Service Authority website has scans of letters from six countries (Burkina Faso, Ecuador, Mauritania, Tanzania, Togo and Zambia) according legal recognition to the World Passports. These letters of recognition are several decades old (1954 for Ecuador, 1972 for Burkina Faso) and reasonable doubt exists about today’s effective acceptance.
The World Passport came under increased international scrutiny in 1996, after the hijacking of the MS Achille Lauro. In the aftermath of the incident, one of the captured hijackers, Youssef Majed al-Molqi, escaped imprisonment in Italy and used a World Passport he acquired in 1988 to leave the country and travel to Spain before he was recaptured.
Peace activist Kenneth O’Keefe tried to travel to Iraq using a World Passport in 2003, but was rejected transit rights by Turkey, and had to apply for an American passport to continue his journey. In 2004, two men from China on board Cathay Pacific Flight 302 from Hong Kong to Guangzhou attempted to pass through immigration at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport using World Passports. The officers at the airport arrested them for illegal entry.
Also, though Garry Davis himself traveled to India some decades ago using his World Passport and gave one personally to Jawaharlal Nehru. But in May 2007 an Indian citizen was arrested for attempting to leave India at Begumpet Airport using his World Passport. The man had intended to travel to the United States. His travel agency and Air India staff both accepted his World Passport, but Indian immigration did not.
Regardless of its acceptance or lack thereof, a traveler may also obtain a World Passport as a moral statement of his or her belief in the inalienable right to travel under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A number of Russian citizens have obtained the World Passport as a form of protest against the “red tape” imposed by the Russian government on their own citizens aiming to travel abroad. In 1977, two mayors of West Bank towns applied for World Passports during a visit by Garry Davis.
The funny part is that despite it’s limited acceptance among the countries of the world, the World Passport is so popular that criminals have even taken to producing fake ones. The Isle of Man’s Financial Supervision Commission reports that they have identified counterfeit World Passports.
