New, more secure national passport coming soon – PM

Work is well advanced and the unveiling of a more secure national travel document is expected soon.{{more}}

Prime Minister and Minister of National Security Dr Ralph Gonsalves said that the Government had entered into a contract in the amount of $3.5 million with the Canadian Bank Note Company (CBN) to design and produce an enhanced ePassport.

“It is expected that by the end of the first quarter of 2014 an even more secure travel document, the ePassport, will be available for issue to our nationals,” Gonsalves said while delivering the 2014 budget address.

While speaking on the issue of passports, he explained that renovations were ongoing for the relocation of the Immigration Department.

That project was estimated to cost $1 million and was being done on the upper floor of the former D’s Services Building on Bay Street which was purchased by the Government.

“This facility will complement the recently modernized and upgraded Electoral Office in the downstairs of the same building,” Gonsalves said.

The Prime Minister further said that appropriate measures had been put in place to ensure that this country remains compliant with the landmark ruling by the Caribbean Court of Justice in the Shanique Myrie case last year.

“To ensure that St Vincent and the Grenadines is fully compliant with Community Law, including the ruling of the CCJ, the Attorney General, the Chief Immigration Officer, the Director of the Regional Integration and Diaspora Unit and the Office of the Prime Minister have put appropriate measures in place, including the specialized training of the Immigration Officers on the issue, and the publication of a fact sheet for all visitors to inform them of their rights as migrants to St Vincent and the Grenadines as well as the State’s obligations,” the Prime Minister said.

Myrie, a Jamaican national was awarded Bds$75,000 ($3.6 million Jamaican) by the CCJ in its ruling last year after declaring that the Barbadian government breached the woman’s right to enter the country under article 5 of the revised treaty of Chaguaramas.

She took the Barbados Government to the CCJ alleging that she was discriminated against because of her nationality when she arrived in Barbados on March 14, 2011. She also claimed she was subjected to a body-cavity search in unsanitary and demeaning conditions before being detained and deported the next day to Jamaica. (DD)