By Omar Anderson, Gleaner WriterTHE PLANNED US$2 million (J$120 million) automated immigration and control system which was expected to be implemented this month-end at the island's two major airports has been delayed.
At the same time, the Immigration and Passport Office in Kingston is reeling from the steady influx of a larger than expected number of applicants for passport renewals, under the new immigration control system.
The proposed system, which is a precursor to the biometric system being pushed by the United States, was expected to be up and running in another five days. However, talks among stakeholders involved in the project have not been finalised, accor-ding to Gilbert Scott, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security.
"I can't give you a precise reading as we speak," he told The Gleaner yesterday. "There are some steps we have to go through."
Mr. Scott noted that the Ministry was still pushing to have the immigration control system up and running in the shortest possible time.
"There's an outside chance we may be able to meet the May 30 deadline but if not, soon after," he projected.
Using machine-readable passports, which are already in use locally, the system will monitor individual travel patterns and keep check on the authenticity of documents. But fingerprinting is not an immediate requirement. Information from drivers' licences on which some persons use to travel will be captured manually.
The immigration equipment to be installed at both the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston and Sangster Interna-tional in Montego Bay, St. James, will electronically record and store details of the travel documents of arriving and departing passengers.
Last month, the Immigration and Passport Office placed an advertisement in the newspapers urging Jamaicans to get machine-readable passports by December 2006. According to the advertisement, passports which expire in 2005 and 2006 can be submitted for renewal as of April 30, 2004.
But Leighton Wilson, director of Immigration Services at the Immigration and Passport Office, told The Gleaner that his office was handling a 100 per cent increase in applications since the announcement. He said persons who do not need to apply for new passports are still doing so.
"We're really stretched in coping with the numbers," he admitted yesterday, "because persons who fall into different passport renewal categories are coming in."
Mr. Wilson noted that the Immigration Office usually processes between 150 and 200 applications, but said the office was now processing up to 400 applications, forcing an extension of the usual 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. office hours.
