Fake Bermuda passports are apparently for sale in street markets in Brazil, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

A photograph of a Sao Paulo street market carried alongside an article on the Brazilian economy in Business Week magazine clearly shows a bin with a poster above it reading "Bermuda Passaports.'' Yesterday, Immigration chief Martin Brewer said he had not heard of fake Island passports being used to try and enter the Island.

And he said the Airport was unlikely to be besieged by a flood of Brazilians with fake documents looking for a better life.

He said: "We have not had any false passports of ours come through and we've never had any blanks stolen.

"I've never seen anything like this at all -- they may not even look like a real Bermuda passport at all.'' But he agreed the passports could be used by Brazilians in desperate bids to enter the United States as illegal immigrants.

Mr. Brewer said Bermuda passports needed visas for entry to the UK, US and the United States.

But he added Bermudians did not require visas to enter the US en route to Bermuda or some other destinations.

He explained: "If Bermudians are travelling from a South American country back to Bermuda through the States then they don't need a visa from the States.'' And that could mean Brazilians could pretend to be travelling through America -- but disappear into the illegal immigrant world instead of on to their claimed destination.

But Mr. Brewer said: "Not having seen the passports, I'm not sure they could even pass first base.

He added: "It's probably easier to cross the US-Mexican border without any documentation at all.

"And we've never had any information from the US that fake Bermuda passports are being used in that way.'' Mr. Brewer said that the Bermuda UK-style passports endorsed with Bermuda on the front and with British Dependent Territories Citizen stamped inside were rare and overseas Immigration officials might not be as familiar with them as they would be with bigger countries.

But he added: "That would, no doubt, mean it would be scrutinised very closely.

"A more common passport wouldn't be -- it doesn't sound like a very bright idea to me. They may even be some sort of toy, I suppose.'' The photograph of the advertising sign appeared in a Business Week article on the Brazilian economy, where an estimated 25 million people make a living from "the informal economy,'' peddling their wares, many fake versions of big name brands, on the streets of the country's cities.