Officials from the Department of Immigration and Emigration have left the island on a factory visit to Poland to inspect the printing of machine-readable passports, the Sunday Times newspaper reported.
The visit comes amidst the rising backlog of unfulfilled applications for passports, following the government’s e-passport tender controversy.
According to local media reports, the Immigration and Emigration Controller General and the Additional Controller General have travelled to Poland to look into the production of passports contracted to Thales and local partner Just in Time Technologies.
The e-passport tender issue has led to a crisis within the Immigration Department, resulting in long queues outside its premises.
The first batch of passports is expected to arrive in late October, with the government providing assurances that this will help ease the long queues. (Newswire)