HUMAN RIGHT CAMPAIGNER RAISES CONCERNS ABOUT THE HALT OF PASSPORT PRODUCTION
Passport bearing for many Sierra Leoneans is seen as a greater achievement because of the difficulties it entails.
BY MOHAMED AMARA GANDO
The Chief Executive (CE) for Campaign for Human Rights and Development International (CHRDI) Abdul Fatorma has raised serious concern over the stop of passport production to citizens by the Sierra Leone Immigration. According to Abdul Fatorma, this action has a negative impact on the lives of people that are urgently in need of it. He made this statement on Wednesday 2 March at his office on Pademba Road in Freetown.
While speaking to medium in an exclusive interview on the effect of non-passport production, the CE of CHRDI said the issuance of passport is a quarantine given to citizens as part of their right to freedom of movement and association to other countries, noting that passport bearing for many Sierra Leoneans is seen as a greater achievement because of the difficulties it entails. But however, he stated that the Government is yet to disclose the reason for the three weeks delay of passport production.
“It was a concern to us for the state to arbitrarily stop the production of passports to citizens. It means a lot and as far as human rights are concerned, the issuance of passports quarantines citizens their other right of movement and association” he lamented.
He disclosed that the recent development of the halt of passport production will have a huge burden not only on ordinary citizens, government officials but people seeking health assistance as well as business people whose expired passports are subject to renewal.
“And if passport production is not forthcoming, nobody knows what government officials are doing, it becomes scary and for the government, it is a major concern and that’s the reason we urge the government of Sierra Leone to start the production. And that we are against the arbitrary stop production of the country passport” he said
He revealed that the NetPage contrary agreement which many believe may have been responsible for the halt in passport production. He said the NetPage agreement should not be the course because the agreement is still stock in Parliament
“The other issues around as well as the storage of our personal information and Sierra Leoneans who worked at the immigration offices don’t have direct access to the database that stores all of our information. So when it comes to allegations, a lot of damping allegations we see NetPage and the government of Sierra Leone. It should also be another major concern to the people of this country because if our personal data is been stored by some foreigners and then nobody in this country has direct access we should be worried for identity theft” he elated.
All efforts were made to have the side of the Sierra Leone immigration to ascertain the reasons for the halt of passport production but proved futile. Beyond Borders will grant them opportunities whenever they are available to respond.
