HOME Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee has debunked claims that the decision regarding requirements for new passport applications — which was changed three times in a short span of time — was not well thought out.

He said, “We’re not dumb dumbs as some people are trying to make out…. This is not a decision where Rohee wakes up and at breakfast decides on something. Government Ministries do not make decisions whimsically….
“Before we make any decision, we have to make sure that it is a well thought out position…but it does not mean you have all the answers, but at least we had the courage to do something.”

Rohee pointed out that when the machine readable passports were introduced, there was a requirement that stipulated the use of a birth certificate issued within a particular period, which was never implemented.

Machine readable passports were introduced in 2007 to ensure that passports were less susceptible to forgery, as well as to enable Guyana to comply with international best practices and prevent illegal use of travel documents.

The Home Affairs Ministry first implemented a policy that new applicants for passports must have birth certificates that are not older than six months, but later revised this stipulation to two years. During its implementation, a court case was filed challenging this policy.

Rohee said, “Before we arrived at the six months (requirement), we sat with the police, we sat with many other stakeholders, and we discussed it…. When we moved from six months to two years, it was an effort to appease the general population and those who felt that those timelines were unhelpful…it had nothing to do with the process of the courts, nothing to do with that.

“We take our decisions independent of what the courts are doing.”
Last week, that requirement policy was scrapped altogether.

GREATER SCRUTINY
However, the Home Affairs Minister added that the current position to allow first-time applicants to use their birth certificate regardless of its date of issue will result in greater scrutiny by immigration officials.

“The whole idea behind the requirement for the new passport (the machine readable passport) was to ensure the integrity of the passport….We will do the internal checking, but we cannot guarantee you will get a passport in a week,” he said.

According to him, there are hundreds of false birth certificates in circulation by persons who pay outside of the regular process of the General Register Office (GRO).

“We have hundreds of false births floating around,” he said.

To this end, Rohee justified the increased scrutiny of the passport applications as a means to ensure that false information is not perpetuated.

Additionally, the Guyana Police Force (GPF), through its Immigration Department, has assured the public that it will make all reasonable efforts to expedite the processing of the applications, but the five-day processing time guaranteed by the Force is not likely to be honoured, because of the need for a more robust verification process to accompany the production of the travel document.

Currently, persons applying for passports are asked to submit the following: passport application form; birth certificate; one passport-size photograph, and a fee of $4,000.In relation to lost/damaged passport, the processing fee is $15,000 and additional conditionalities are required to be satisfied to facilitate issuance.
Written By Vanessa Narine