NEW MACHINE-READABLE passports, first promised by the Government nearly six years ago to fight passport fraud, are being assembled and will be ready for distribution within the next two to three months, says Shirley Byfield, Information Officer at the Ministry of National Security and Justice.
The Ministry at a press conference last August said the first batch of 500,000 passports would have been available locally by last month. The new design is expected to make the job of immigration and passport control much easier. It should also significantly curtail or eliminate passport fraud, the experts say.
"We are developing the new passports at the moment and a location has been established from which they will be issued," Miss Byfield told The Gleaner. She refused to say where the new passport office will be or how much it was costing to refurbish the premises, but sources told The Gleaner it will be at the former Jamaica Public Service Company (JPSCo) office on Constant Spring Road. More than 300 persons are to be processed there each day.
However, according to Miss Byfield, while the passports which will have several security features are to be developed overseas, the process will be completed locally. She did not say how much the new document will cost, but persons currently holding passports will have the option to continue using them until they expire.
A $70 million contract was signed last August between the Government and Canadian Bank Note Company Ltd., for the procurement of a much smaller, safer passport. It comes complete with its own watermark, security thread and 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. The page containing the demographics of the passport holder is repeated in a machine readable line on the same page.
