Laos deploys Regula Comparator to prevent ID document fraud at air border | Biometric Update (2025)

Regula technology for ID document verification has been deployed to Wattay International Airport in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Laos) to strengthen document authentication and border security.

The Regula 4306 Comparator was deployed under a partnership between the Laotian government, IOM (the UN’s International Organization for Migration) and the Australian Department of Home Affairs.

Border control checks in Laos have relied on manual inspection of identity documents until recently, according to the announcement. This makes them time-consuming, prone to errors, and inadequately effective at spotting the increasingly sophisticated ID forgery used by criminals and irregular migrants.

Wattay International is Laos’ main airport for cross-border flights.

Regula’s 4306 Comparator gives Laotian immigration authorities high-precision comparison capabilities and a wide array of features to detect document alterations, differentiate ink properties, and recover faded text. Those include a high-resolution 8 MP camera with 60x zoom, which can capture document images at up to 18.900 ppi for fine detail analysis. The Regula 4306 includes more than 40 types of light sources and 18 filters, allowing authorities to examine holograms, watermarks, microprinting and optically variable elements for reliable fraud detection.

Regula conducted special training sessions with Laotian immigration officials to ensure they can make use of the advanced features for accurate document verification.

“Integrating Regula’s devices into the Lao border management operations is a vital step toward combating serious crimes such as human trafficking and irregular migration. This technology enables detection of fraudulent documents with higher accuracy, eliminating human errors,” says IOM Chief of Mission in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic Shareen Tuladhar.

The Comparator is operated with the Regula Forensic Studio cross-platform software and integrated with the Regula Document Reader SDK. The software gives Laotian authorities access to Regula’s huge identity document database.

“By equipping the Lao immigration authorities with our top-selling video spectral comparator, the Regula 4306, we are providing them with advanced forensic tools to precisely detect even the most sophisticated document forgeries and stop criminals before they can cause harm,” comments Regula Director of Hardware Engineering Alex Lewanowicz.

More details on the project are shared in a case study from Regula.

Article Topics

airports | border security | digital ID | document verification | Laos | Regula