THE GOVERNMENT is pushing to introduce the Advance Passenger Information (API) and Passenger Name Record (PNR) in a move to deal with undocumented immigrants.
In Parliament last week, Immigration Minister Viliame Naupoto said the ministry would include the adoption of these tools in its budget submissions.
“The tools for that are the Advance Passenger Information and Passenger Name Record where you get in advance information of the passengers coming in,” the minister said.
“There is a process you go through, and you are able to very quickly screen out those you need to pay attention to and allow those that are okay to flow through as they come through our borders.
“We are putting that submission into this budget proposal for this year, and we will see where we go, but these are tools that we really need to have — API and PNR.”
Mr Naupoto also highlighted the ministry’s efforts to clean up its database.
“If we look at the number of illegals in the country, towards the end of last year, we had about 8000.
“We did a cleaning up of data. The problem with our system is that it cannot pick up that data.
“If someone comes in with a business permit from Tuvalu, for example, and then applies to have a study permit, the system will register the study permit and not cancel the business permit.
“So, when the business permit expires, it will register that there is a prohibited immigrant when, in fact, he is not. He now has a study permit for one year.”
Mr Naupoto said that following the clean-up, the number of undocumented immigrants had reduced significantly.
He added that as of April 30 following the clean-up, figures on illegal migrants stood at a little more than 5000 from the initial 8000 on record previosly.
