Machine readable passports to be launched in Guyana on Friday
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| Published on Thursday, July 12, 2007 |
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GEORGETOWN, Guyana (GINA): On Friday, July 13 Guyana will join other Caribbean countries to provide a more secure passport system which the region is introducing to protect against multiple issuance of the travel document.
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| Guyana President Bharrat Jagdeo. AFP PHOTO |
The new system will be launched at the Central Immigration and Passport Office on Camp Street and will be attended by President Bharrat Jagdeo, senior officials of the Immigration office, Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee and officials from Canadian Bank Note (CBN) the company that printed the travel documents.
President Jagdeo will be the first applicant to receive the new Guyana-CARICOM travel document which meets the standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization, Doc 9303, Part 1 Machine Readable Passports.
The passports have a new attractive design featuring Guyana’s flora and fauna, highly secure with tamper-resistant engravement and lithographic security printing.
The new system will check all passport applications against a database of biometric information for all passport holders. It will also assist in the fight against terrorism, immigrant smuggling and trafficking in persons.
On December 8, 2006, Minister Rohee and CBN’s Vice-President Simon Wall inked the final agreement for the production of the passports through a computerised system. The company is also contracted to produce the equipment to read the Passports which are to be installed at the various ports of entry and exit.
CBN is a Canadian company which has supplied secure Passport issuing systems to Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, St.Kitts and Nevis and St. Lucia and has delivered more than 50 secure identification systems to governments worldwide.
During last month officials from CBN conducted training sessions at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) with Immigration officers and border control ranks in preparation for the implementation of the system.
The Immigration Department from June 19 has not been accepting any new applications for Passports but applicants eligible for new passports are advised to stand by for relevant advisories which will be issued from Friday. |
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