Police silent on seven-year lapse in applying new passport criteria

Seelall Persaud

The Guyana Police Force has opted to remain silent on criticisms of its failure over seven years to update the birth certificate criteria for the issue of machine readable passports.

The Ministry of Home Affairs on Wednesday said since the machine-readable passports were introduced, the force failed to implement a requirement that birth certificates used for first time applicants be issued within six months of the application. The machine readable passports were introduced in August of 2007.

Several efforts were made to contact Chief Immigration Officer Seelall Persaud on the issue but without success.

The Home Ministry on Wednesday indicated that a requirement for a birth certificate to have been issued within two years of an application for a first passport had been scrapped. An earlier requirement for a birth certificate issued within six months of the passport application had also been withdrawn in the midst of litigation by attorney Saphier Husain, who challenged the legality