Earlier in the news, we showed you our interview with Minister of State responsible for the Immigration Department, Beverly Williams.
We also used the opportunity to ask her why the Department had to shut down the printing of passports. Their passport machine is broken, and they don't intend to fix it. Ministry wants to get a new one, but in the meantime, any person who needs one can come in to apply for a temporary passport.
The Minister explained how they are managing the situation:
Hon. Beverly Williams, Minister of State/Immigration
"There are no freeze on the issuance of passports. The system is broken and we know that it is something we cannot continue to use in the long run. We've been having some spoilage when we attempt. Everybody who needs a passport that is urgent, they can either get a temporary one or we will attempt to print that passport on the system if the machine allows us to print. We've had spoilage of up to 15 passports in a day but we get 2 good ones and so even if we attempt to do that, we will have the temporary passports on hand for persons who have emergency travel. There's no freeze on passport."
Reporter
"This temporary passport and the extension on existing passport is something that will be acceptable at all border points around the world?"
Hon. Beverly Williams, Minister of State/Immigration
"Of course we've informed the international community, our consulates and embassies abroad so that it can also be spread widely and we are hoping that it is so temporary in nature that it will not cause any problems for us."
"I believe it will be not cost effective to fix the system because it's an aged system. The capacity will no longer be able to maintain the storage capacity and developing a new system is the way to go. That is what we are in the process of doing."
Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"We have understood that maybe the US Government was interested in donating one to the Ministry of Immigration but with the condition that you all have to move from your current location, are you able to expand on that for us?"
Hon. Beverly Williams, Minister of State/Immigration
"That's what I indicated earlier. The donors will not come forward if we do not have a new structure. As recent as yesterday we are looking at procuring new structure because the development of the system will take 6-8 months and we have sufficient passports. If we don't, we'll go get sufficient passports to ensure that none of our citizens are disenfranchised."
Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"What is the status with the purchase of Mr. President Lee Mark Chang's building? Are you all still going to follow through with that or has a different decision been made?"
Hon. Beverly Williams, Minister of State/Immigration
"We're looking at all our options Daniel. I believe that there are other bids for that building and we are looking at the best fit for government. I know as recent as yesterday we looked at other options in Belmopan to get it moved forward quickly."
Those passports that have expired, but still contain blank pages will be renewed for a year.
Email
Print