WITHIN SIX months, Jamaicans will have access to a new machine-readable passport laced with security features as the Government moves to curb the long-standing problem of passport fraud.
National Security and Justice Minister, K.D. Knight, yesterday signed a US$1.67 million (J$70 million) contract with the Government and Canadian Bank Note Company Limited at his Oxford Road Ministry. The company was selected from a group of four foreign-based firms which submitted bids in December, 1998.
The contract was being signed more than five years after the new passport was first promised.
In the first instance, 500,000 passports will be made available, the Minister said. He explained that while new applicants will be issued with the new book, current passport holders will be allowed to continue using them until they expire. He said that they would also have the option of purchasing the new passport.
In addition to the passports, the contract will cover a passport issuing and border control system, installation and project management costs, training and warranty as well as maintenance costs for the first year.
Technical officers from the Canadian firm will arrive in the island next week to begin the development of the system, and, according to Mr. Knight, it's expected that within six months the new passport will be available.
In pointing out that the current passport was often tampered with and its security features breached, Mr. Knight said "this move today will go a far extent in removing several of the possibilities that now exist".
The move to a new passport was in keeping with an international trend as it "provides a universal standard of reliability, efficiency and is globally accepted as the approach to take to passport books and processing," he said.
Michael Southwell, senior vice-president at Canadian Bank Note Company, pointed to some of the security features of the new passport which he said will have its own watermark. It will also incorporate security thread and have micro printed text. It will feature a multi-coloured design with images that are only visible under certain lights or when held at a certain angle.
Mr. Southwell described as "probably the most important feature" the page containing the demographics of the passport holder. He explained that the information is repeated in a machine-readable line on the same page.
Canadian High Commissioner to Jamaica, Mr. John Robinson, who also spoke at the signing, lauded the Jamaican Government for taking steps to "standardise its border control operations". He noted that the various security features of the new passport will make the job of immigration and passport control much easier and in the short-term will help to deal with passport fraud.
