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CARICOM
Travel Card to be implemented in 2009
Date Posted: October 07, 2008.
BASSETERE,
ST. KITTS, (CUOPM) – The recently signed Memorandum of
Understanding between IMPACS and the Caribbean Centre for
Development Administration (CARICAD) and the accompanying
standard operational procedures which addressed customer
service training to be provided to Immigration and Customs
Departments were among issues discussed at the recent
meeting of Regional Chiefs of Immigration and Comptrollers
of Customs.
St. Kitts' Acting Comptroller of Customs, Mr. Rodney Harris
and Inspector Luther Kelly of the Immigration Department
attended the September 9th to October 1st meeting in Grenada
which also discussed the Advance Passenger Information
System and the Advance Cargo Information System.
The implementation of the CARICOM Travel Card (CARIPASS) as
approved at the Twenty-Ninth Conference of Heads of
Government Meeting in July 2008 was the main focus of the
Agenda.
The Travel Card, which is set to become operational in
participating states in 2009, is a voluntary regime which
would allow eligible CARICOM Nationals and legal residents
to clear Immigration using designated electronic gates in
Immigration halls. The CARIPASS is expected to support
expedited travel throughout participating CARICOM Member
States.
Recommendations from this meeting will be presented to the
Seventh Meeting of the Council of Ministers responsible for
National Security and Law Enforcement (CONSLE) scheduled to
convene in November.
In attendance were Chiefs of Immigration and Comptrollers of
Customs or their representatives from CARICOM Member States
including Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada,
Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia,
St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago; as
well as representatives from Anguilla, Bermuda and the
British Virgin Islands.
Delegates also included Directors and other Senior Officers
of the CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security
(IMPACS) and the Joint Regional Communications Centre (JRCC).
