Two Saint Lucian delegates recently participated in a critical aspect of the implementation of the passport system in Saint Lucia.
The two officials, Mr. Lucius Lake of the Border Control Agency of Saint Lucia and Inspector Crescent Lionel of the Passport Office, Immigration Department of the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force, participated in the Customer Acceptance Test (CAT) during the week of June 20th, 2022.
In 2021 the Government of Saint Lucia and the Canadian Bank Note Company Limited
(CBN) entered into an agreement for the supply of ePassports and an ePassport Issuance and Control System solution.
Immigration expert with the St. Lucia Border Control Agency Mr. Lucius Lake commented on the significance of CBN’s role in ruling out the ePassports, which will replace the existing machine-readable passports.
He says the outgoing system was designed and implemented since 2007 and now provides the foundation for a seamless security upgrade to the ePassport system.
Caribbean countries that have already begun issuing ePassports include Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada and St. Kitts and Nevis. Jamaica is set to launch its ePassport system in 2023.
Source: Department of Home Affairs
