page_title: Camouflage passport
section_title: Purpose and legality
hierarchical_section_title: Camouflage passport / Purpose and legality
caption_attribution_description: English: The cover of an HP fantasy passport
context_page_description: A camouflage passport is a document, designed to look like a real passport, issued in the name of a non-existent country or entity. It may be sold with matching documents, such as an international driver's license, club membership card, insurance documents or similar supporting identity papers. A camouflage passport is not a real, valid passport and is to be distinguished from a valid second passport, which an individual with dual citizenship may be eligible to hold, a novelty fantasy passport, or a fake of a real passport.
context_section_description: According to sellers, the purpose of a true camouflage passport, rather than a novelty fantasy passport, is to provide false identification to be used in an emergency to protect the bearer from unwelcome attention at border crossings or anywhere that they might be asked to produce their documents and could be at risk. The camouflage passport, they say, is therefore intended primarily to deceive a customs, immigration or police officer into believing that the bearer is a person from a small, unimportant, and far away country that is not an enemy, or, in a terrorist situation, that the bearer is not a potentially high value hostage.
  Others argue, however, that the true purpose of these documents is to be used in criminal activity, including terrorism and money laundering, and that the majority of camouflage passports are bought for those purposes. After the attacks of 9/11, the United States restricted the sale of camouflage passports, although they are still legal to possess in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, and all of the European Union. Laws elsewhere may vary.
  In 2011, the European Union resolved that a "non-exhaustive list of known fantasy and camouflage passports" should be drawn up that "should not be subject to recognition or non-recognition. They should not entitle their holders to cross the external borders and should not be endorsed with a visa." A list was subsequently published and last updated in January 2014.
caption: Fantasy UK Passport issued by 'Hogwarts School'
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