New machine-readable passports should be available by June 2006, Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell recently told a group of police officers during a seminar at Central Police Station in Freeport.
According to Minister Mitchell, the present handwritten passports do not meet international security standards.
However, the new passports will be much more difficult to forge, he said.
“Everything is going to be switched to a digital format with biometrics and a chip included in the passport and this is now being reviewed,” the minister said.
“Instead of passports being issued in all the places in the country, [because presently] each island administrator is able to write up a passport, there will be only two issuing stations: one in Grand Bahama and one in New Providence. We are advised that this is the more secure way of dealing with this,” Minister Mitchell said.
Minister Mitchell also informed that a new passport office will be constructed in a new government complex to be built on Adventurer’s Way, west of the present government complex.
It will be constructed at a cost of $2.2 million, according to Minister of Housing and National Insurance Shane Gibson, who was also on Grand Bahama recently.
Minister Mitchell also addressed the need for a protocol lounge, with an appointed deputy chief of protocol, in the Grand Bahama International Airport.
He said there is a need for a secure facility so U.S. officials can conduct interviews for the granting of visas.
“They are not in a position to provide a consulate here at the moment because of restrictions on resources,” Minister Mitchell said.
“We have been talking with the [U.S.] Ambassador John Rood about the means of having intermittent visits by a consulate officer from the embassy with a view to easing the burden of those who wish to apply for visas from Grand Bahama,” he said.
In addition to having safe cars parked at the airport for the exclusive use of foreign diplomats and public officials, Minister Mitchell also suggested there ought to be the founding of an honorary consular corps to deal with the needs of foreign visitors including those from the U.S.
Minister Mitchell also touched on several other issues his ministry is handling, such as the opening of two new embassies in Cuba and China, academic scholarships for students, and the delimitation of boundaries surrounding The Bahamas.
He said borders need to be defined between The Bahamas and the three territories on its perimeter: the U.S., Turks and Caicos and Cuba, to avoid issues like illegal fishing.
Minister Mitchell, who was accompanied by the first assistant secretary of his ministry in the International Relations Division, Rhoda Jackson, said the ministry wants to have “an increasing interface” with Grand Bahama and the rest of the Family Islands, so everyone can feel a part of the whole.
He pointed to two major international meetings held in Freeport this year: the Foreign Minister’s Conference of Caricom, and a meeting held last month with the South African Foreign Minister, which he believes “will lead to increased trade opportunities” for the island.
“Our role is to smooth the passage of Bahamians wherever they go in the world,” Minister Mitchell said.
“This means everything from promoting trade with The Bahamas, so that the business opportunities for our people improve, to ensuring that there is hassle free access to other countries.”
By: Courtnee Romer, The Bahama Journal
