Work has began on a digital, high-security passport to be utilized by Barbadians because the country looks to the longer term because the world’s newest republic.
The Mia Mottley administration has contracted a Texas-based identity solutions firm, HID Global, to design the passport as a part of a three-year supply agreement.
Vice President of Sales for Latin America and the Caribbean Jorge Castrillo told Barbados TODAY on Wednesday evening that the corporate can even be establishing a disaster recovery site at Grantley Adams International Airport (GAIA).
“We now have been awarded this project and we’re working along with the Immigration Department. The passport, it’s already what we call a biometric passport, is already an electronic passport,” Castrillo said.
“But this new generation of use, this new version of the passport, comprises way more security. It has new technology with a view to make it safer, harder to be counterfeited and likewise it comprises additional electronic features with a view to make the passport one of the vital secure and advanced passports on the earth,” he identified.
Asked how long before the new Barbados travel document could be ready to be used, Castrillo replied: “That is something that we’re currently working on. We’re working hand-in-hand with the Ministry of Home Affairs and mainly with the Immigration Department and I actually have to refer back to the Immigration Department with a view to answer this query.”
Regarding the disaster recovery site on the airport, Castrillo said it’s a very important piece of technology in support of the e-passport.
“The important activities of this disaster recovery is to function a backup for the important site, but additionally it’d help if essential. If for example there’s a peak within the production or within the personalization of the passport, it may also help with a view to mitigate this extra demand,” he explained.
When contacted, Minister of Home Affairs Wilfred Abrahams referred Barbados TODAY to the Chief Immigration Officer Margaret Inniss who couldn’t be reached.
But in a news release dated February 15 and issued in Austin, Texas, Abrahams is quoted as saying: “We sit up for working with HID to finalize the new-look design and implement the disaster recovery site.”
Barbados is taken into account to have the Caribbean region’s strongest passport, based on the Henley Passport Index.
The discharge also said that the creation of a disaster recovery site on the airport is to make sure business continuity should the important passport issuance center be compromised.
This consists of technology upgrades in addition to support for the important issuance site.
“HID Global is pleased with our partnership with Barbados because the supplier of the country’s passport and would really like to congratulate the people of Barbados as they take this historic step. We sit up for meeting the needs of Barbados in the longer term,” said Craig Sandness, SVP and Head of Secure Issuance and Citizen ID Solutions of HID Global. (EJ)
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