BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – ALL St. Kitts and Nevis-issued passports which do not have the “country of birth” field in them, are being deactivated by the government.
This was the announcement made by Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Timothy S. Harris yesterday (Mar. 9) during his press conference held at the Parliamentary Lounge at Government Headquarters.
Dr. Harris suggested that the decision made by the previous government to remove this field, compromised the integrity of the Federation’s passports.
“FINCEN asserted that this major policy breach allowed our passport to get in the hands of illicit actors…
“You would recall that the discredited past regime was forced on December 10, 2014 to recall St. Kitts and Nevis passports issued prior to July 2014, which did not show the place of birth of persons to whom the passports were issued. The recall and replacement were originally to run over a short window – December 10 and December 31, 2014. Public outcry led to the deadline being extended to March 31, 2015. Subsequently there had been two other extensions to that particular timeframe.”
Dr. Harris indicated that 15,327 passports, which did not have the country of birth field, were issued by the previous administration; 15,197 of them were regular passports, 39 were official passports and 91 were diplomatic passports.
With the deactivation of these passports taking place, Dr. Harris said their holders would have to make application for new passports which would be fitted with the appropriate information.
“My government has taken the decision to deactivate all passports issued by the former government without the country of birth field. All such holders will have to reapply for a new passport which will contain the relevant country of birth field and they will pay the cost of the new passport.
“This of course is imperative to safeguard the integrity of our passport, to comply with international best practices and to satisfy our commitment to being a responsible member of the international community.”
Dr. Harris said the passports, which are missing the place of birth information, could not be allowed to remain valid as that could “bring discredit to the legitimacy of those of you who have your passports with the country of origin fields”.
According to the Nomad Passport Index, the St. Kitts and Nevis Passport has been ranked number two in CARICOM, number one in the OECS and number 50 among the 199 countries which were assessed.
