Caricom hassle free swipe cards soon

by Tracy Moore 06.JUL.07

CARICOM NATIONALS may soon be able to travel the region with less hassle by the swipe of card.

The announcement came from Deputy Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley on Wednesday when she introduced the CARICOM Travel Card, part of the effort to create a single domestic space, during a press conference on Wednesday at the start of the last session of the 28th CARICOM Heads of Government Conference.{{more}}

Similar to the “Pass Cards” available in other parts of the world, she explained that the CARICOM Travel Card would fast track entry through immigration because passports would no longer have to be submitted for examination or stamping.

In addition, the new card would be the size of a credit card but with two biometrics features – finger print and facial – so that upon entry travellers can “swipe the card in the machine and the barrier will open and you walk through”.

“This card will be made available to all [nationals of participating] CARICOM . . . states as well as to any third party persons who have legal status within the particular country. Their card would be time-bound in a way that is linked exclusively to the time of their legal status,” she said.

However, these cards will cost the users.

“[Heads of Government] have agreed that the fees derived from the travel card will go to help offset the CARICOM security architecture . . . without putting a burden on the treasury on the various member states,” she explained.

She said the card would be more efficient than the current wrist band in use but that it would equally allow for a “rationalisation of the deployment of immigration officers”.

“[This] is to ensure that as we roll out the implementation plan for the Bureau of Heads by September, that we are in the position to have all bases covered,” she said.

She warned that the travel card would not be provided to persons on the CARICOM watch list.

“It would have those persons who ought not be a recipient of a card because of their previous conduct or because they are the subject of specific security investigation so that we cover access to the country both by ensuring that those persons would have to go through passport examinations as opposed to being the recipient of a CARICOM travel card,” she said.

(Barbados Nation)