A  sizeable crowd at the Central Immigration and Passport Office yesterday voiced disapproval at being told that the office was closed for the day for the police force’s annual sports activities.

When Stabroek News arrived at the Camp Road office at about 10:30 am, some employees who were passing the building at the time, said that the entire office was closed for business for the day in order to facilitate their sports activities which was at the time in full swing at the Police Eve Leary Sports Ground, located a stone’s throw away.

“This is ridiculous, why dey close a public service building like this fuh de whole day?” one angry man asked. “Dey should do a shift system or something,” he added.

People who had travelled from as far as Linden and the Corentyne were visibly distressed and counting the amount of money they had wasted in travelling to the city to conduct business which turned out to be futile.

Though a notice informing customers of the day’s closure had been posted at the front of the building, it was inadequate as persons coming from out of Georgetown would have only been aware upon arriving at the passport office.

Those gathered argued that the relevant authorities should have had the decency and common courtesy to place notices in the media long in advance informing persons of the closure.

A crowd was also turned away much earlier in the morning. Because this office is the only one handling passports it is usually thronged by hundreds of persons from as early as 4.30 am each working day.

Even then, some persons are still turned away because the quota for the day is filled.
“I am of the opinion that people working at places like these should not all be allowed to go to sports for an entire day, but at the least what they should have done is tell people long in advance by way of all the media places so that we wouldn’t have turned up here to find this utter nonsense,” one woman who had travelled from Linden said.

“The people in authority responsible for this closure have no respect for people’s time and finances,” a man who was told to return yesterday for an appointment said.

“This is a real cowboy country what really is happening in dis place, de passport office closed fuh a whole day because ah sports?” a man pondered. “We need to do better”, he asserted.

This newspaper was told by Immigration Officers that the office would be reopened from Monday for business as usual.
(Femi Harris)