A travel document is an identity document issued by a government or international treaty organization to facilitate the movement of individuals or small groups of persons across international boundaries. Travel documents usually assure other governments that the bearer may return to the issuing country, and are often issued in booklet form to allow other governments to place visas as well as entry and exit stamps into them. The most common travel document is a passport, which usually gives the bearer more privileges like visa-free access to certain countries. [1] However, the term is sometimes used only for those documents which do not bear proof of nationality, such as the Refugee Travel Document.
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In general, a passport is a travel document that also serves as proof of citizenship from the issuing country. Although generally accepted by the majority of countries in the world, some issuing countries expressly exclude the validity of passports from nations that are not recognized by their governments.[2]
A laissez-passer (from the French let pass) is a travel document issued by a national government or certain international organizations, such as the United Nations, European Union and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). A laissez-passer is often for one-way travel to the issuing country for humanitarian reasons only. Some national governments issue laissez-passers to their own nationals as emergency passports. Others issue them to people who are stateless, or who are unable to obtain a passport from their own government, or whose government is not recognized by the issuing country.
Historically, laissez-passers were commonly issued during wartime and at other periods, literally acting as a pass to allow travel to specific areas, or out of war zones or countries for various officials, diplomatic agents, other representatives or citizens of third countries. In these contexts, a laissez-passer would frequently include quite specific and limited freedom of movement. The form and issuing authority would be more or less standardized, depending on the circumstances.
An example is when in the early 1950s, the Iraqi government granted permission to its 120,000 Jewish citizens to leave (Operation Ezra and Nehemiah), conditional on their renouncement of their citizenship and leaving behind all their properties and assets. The travel document that was issued was the laissez-passer, since an Iraqi passport was no longer possible.[3]
The United Nations (and the International Labour Organization) issue a laissez-passer to officials and members of the UN and other specialized agencies as well as to several international organizations. The laissez-passer is also issued to their families for official use. The United Nations Laissez-Passer is similar to a passport, and is generally recognized worldwide, although some countries will not accept the document as sufficient to gain entry. It does not generally confer diplomatic immunity, but may confer limited immunities and privileges.
Between 2000 and 2010, the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) issued travel documents to residents of Kosovo as they were often not able to obtain a passport through other channels.
Several other groups of documents issued for a different purpose officially serve as travel documents, generally for a limited set of countries. Such documents (when allowing full border crossing -exiting one country, and entering another- only) are discussed below:
Identity cards are generally issued as a means of identification within a country, but can often also be used as a travel document. For example, complying National Identity Cards of the European Union can be used unrestricted in at least 30 countries (the 27 member states of the European Union plus the three non-EU Schengen states Norway, Switzerland, and Iceland)and also for entering to Turkey which is a candidate state for the EU. Also the U.S. passport card can be regarded an identity card fit for international travel, particularly in North America.
Driver's licenses are generally not considered travel documents, since they bear no information on nationality and conditions which would lead to refusal of a travel document have generally not been tested. However, in several provinces of Canada and U.S. states, nationals/citizens can -upon payment of an extra fee and additional information regarding- receive an Enhanced Drivers License which enables border crossing between Canada and the U.S. by land and sea.[4][5]
De facto travel documents are documents which in practice will be sufficient to cross borders legally, but with no legal status as a travel document. Within the Border Controls in the Common Travel Area, travel between Ireland, the United Kingdom, the British Crown Dependencies, Isle of Man and Channel Islands, no travel documents are required by British or Irish citizens. As this requirement does not hold for others, these citizens have to establish the presumption of having this nationality, which requires in practice some form of identification. The documents used for this purpose (most notably: driving licence) are thus de facto travel documents.
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