Department of Immigration Director Amelia Komaisavai says every month; government process and prints over 6,000 passports.
Speaking to FijiLive, Komaisavai said the demand for passport in Fiji is huge and the disruptions in its services is due to a lot of factors associated – there are power disruptions which out of our control.
Komaisavai said last month, road works happening in Walu Bay, workers had cut the fibre cable that connects their system to the internet and the printing of passports had stopped.
“The Fijian passports is processed and printed locally in one of our warehouse in Walu Bay. And these things are out of our hands and all that we try to do is rectify these issues as quickly as possible,” Komaisavai added.
In a press conference, Minister for Immigration Pio Tikoduadua admits that there is a laxed in its resources to cater for the requirements for people that need passports.
Tikoduadua said Government, this year, is investing a lot of money into the department, while at the same time; the Department of Immigration is also reviewing the Immigration laws to make it more responsive to Fiji’s need and to its investors.
The Minister also indicated that the Department of Immigration will be moving to its new headquarters soon.
“We are working to better size our staff, more people will be recruited to respond to the high demands for passports for Fijians. The Department is also investing in automation and have a cashless process, which is quicker than cash transactions.”
“Hopefully, this is going to be a problem of the past.,” Tikoduadua added.
The Minister highlighted that Government is committed and will be rolling out these programs soon.
Tikoduadua has urged the public to bear with the Department for a little while longer.
He added that he has continued to receive complaints daily and indicated that they indicate to resolve them as soon as possible.
