Salailagi, 10, is first Fijian to receive ePassport

Ten-year-old Salailagi Kolinisau became the first Fijian to receive an ePassport. She and five other students received their ePassports during the launch yesterday. The Gospel Primary student said it was “unexpected”. Launching the ePassport, Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama said it was another milestone in our national development, one that would make travel much easier for all Fijians.

“With today’s (yesterday) ePassport launch, we are taking the next step to a sweeping digital government transformation that will touch all corners of Fijian society, securing our borders, uplifting our economy and bettering the lives of our people along the way,” PM Bainimarama said.

He added that new e-Passports would bring about benefits to all Fijian citizens, both at home and those travelling abroad, because it would consolidate security requirements at our own borders and ease travel at ports of entry around the globe.

“So, we’re not only making Fiji safer, we’re making travelling easier. We’re also setting Fiji up for wider visa-free status access around the world and I hope to have updates and announcements about this in the future as we continue to actively push nations of the world to allow Fijian travelers to move freely to work, play, and visit their families abroad.”

ePassport features:

The new bio-data page is a polycarbonate, seven-layer heat pressed page printed with multi-imaging techniques.

“But while these e-Passports are considerably more sophisticated, that doesn’t mean they take longer to produce – in fact, just the opposite,” Mr Bainimarama said.

It contains a new range of security features that will make it difficult for people to enter the country illegally.

“This establishes a more secure Fijian passport, bringing greater integrity to the immigration system,” he said.

Mr Bainimarama added that the Fijian ePassport holders would also be protected against forgery, identity theft, passport tampering and reproduction.

With the rollout of our new ePassports, Fiji officially joins the ranks of 54 other countries around the world that have already engrained such technology within their passports.

Upcoming developments:

Mr Bainimarama highlighted that there would be exciting developments in the coming months that would expedite work processes for visa approvals and forever make our immigration policies more secure, fair, and accountable.

“Once we reach critical mass with ePassport holders, we will be installing ePassport gates at our international airports in Fiji.” Mr Bainimarama acknowledged the Fijian Government’s ITC Department, Department of Immigration, Ministry of Economy and the international partners, Germany’s Mühlbauer ID Services and Sri Lanka’s Informatics for the hard work put in to get “us over the finish line”.