Belize runs out of passports

He was brought in to clean up the mess in the Immigration Department in the wake of major scandal. But after less than two years on the job, Director of Immigration Colonel Peter Parchue has found himself in the middle of controversy. His troubles began with the arrest of his daughter, April Parchue, a cashier in the Belize City Immigration Office, accused of embezzling government funds. That arrest, according to critics, came far later than it should have, and only after the media put pressure on government to take action. More recent scrutiny has focussed on other alleged irregularities including the circulation of phoney visas within Belize’s Chinese community. But the occurrence which may prove to be the director’s undoing has nothing to do with anything remotely illegal or unethical… and everything to do with simple administrative incompetence. The Immigration Department, it seems, has run out of passports.

News 5 was alerted to the situation by several viewers who went to their district immigration offices for the simple renewal of passports. They were told that no new passports would be issued before the middle of July–some two months from now. This morning Colonel Parchue confirmed the bad news, explaining to News 5’s Stewart Krohn that the problem arose when personnel changes at Thomas de La Rue–the British security printing company that produces Belize’s passports–delayed the approval of certain changes in security features on the passports. This meant that the completion date was pushed back to mid July. Meanwhile, the existing stock of old passports continued to dwindle to the point where as of this week they are simply all gone. Viewers can decide for themselves whether they buy this explanation, but it does not change the fact that the coming school holidays constitute Belize’s peak travel season–and a significant portion of those travellers will be needing a new passport.

So what to do? According to Parchue, all is not lost. Those whose passport has expired can request an extension for one year. This will be granted at no charge and delivered within forty-eight hours…but the drawback is that the applicant must apply and pick up the passport in Belmopan.

For those whose passport has run out of pages, the Immigration Department will issue a provisional passport. This locally produced document should be ready by next week and will be valid for one year. The charge will be the same as that for a new passport and when the advanced machine-readable Belize passports come on stream at the end of the year the provisional can simply be swapped for the new one at no charge. Again, the process can only be accessed in Belmopan.

Parchue expressed his hope that the public will not be overly inconvenienced and repeated that his department did everything it could to prevent the unforeseen situation. When asked to comment on rumours that he is to be relieved of his post and transferred to another position in government, Parchue denied knowledge of any such move, but said that as a public officer he can be transferred at the whim of government and he will do his best wherever he is asked to serve.