Fiji Labour Party Leader Mahendra Chaudhry has slammed the government over what he describes as “a persistent passport crisis” that is hurting ordinary citizens.
“The government’s explanation for its ongoing failure to provide Fijian citizens with their passports on time is neither correct nor acceptable,” Mr Chaudhry said in a statement yesterday.
He claims the real cause of the delays is in “payment delays to the foreign agency contracted to produce Fiji passports.”
Mr Chaudhry said this had created “repeated backlogs, causing undue stress, cancelled travel plans, and financial losses to our people.”
“Instead of taking responsibility, the Immigration Department continues to hide behind excuses such as ‘machines are down,’ while the backlog grows and passport fees are increased,” he said.
The Labour leader called for Finance Minister Prof Biman Prasad to be held accountable for the delayed payments, while urging Immigration Minister Viliame Naupote to “act to put the department’s affairs in order.”
Mr Chaudhry said the recent arrival of 30,000 passport books was “only a partial fix” and that the long-standing backlog “should never have been allowed to reach such a crisis point.”
“Government’s boasts about overtime printing and ‘historic orders’ of new books are meaningless when thousands of Fijians have already been made to wait months for their passports, with many still in a limbo,” he said.
“Fijians have a right to efficient government services – not empty promises, soaring fees, and chronic mismanagement.”