New port gets passport control office |19 December 2017

With the increase in seafarers, the immigration and civil status department has located a permanent passport control office at the New Port to allow easy flow of passengers entering and leaving the port of Seychelles.

The office was officially opened yesterday by the Minister for Employment, Immigration and Civil Status Myriam Telemaque in the presence of principal secretary (PS) for immigration and civil status Florianne Vidot, PS for employment Jules Baker, among other high officers of the immigration and civil status department.

Following the opening, the ministerial delegation toured the office and viewed the work being undertaken since the office has been operational on December 1.

There are two permanent officers based at the new passport control office compared to before where immigration officers had to be dispatched from the central office or the airport to receive seafarers according to demand.

The office is open during normal working hours but it may even extend beyond that if there are cruise ships or yachts entering the port after working hours.

Following the tour, the ministerial delegation also visited the new customer service centre based at Independence House which was renovated earlier this year.

The centre based on the ground floor of Independence House has been operational since July 2017 and it offers a variety of service under one roof which includes visitors permit, work permit, passport, national ID, birth certificate, death certificate among others.

Chief immigration officer Paul Didon said this new office at the port allows them to bring their services closer to the people and do away with the hassle of dispatching an officer back and forth every time there was a need.

“Recently we have seen a great increase in the number of people using the port as an entrance to Seychelles for both business and leisure and so we found the necessity to set up an office permanently at the port to provide clearance among other services,” he said.

Mr Didon said the office has already proven to be useful as the immigration officer cleared about 300 passengers of the Silver Sea cruise ship just yesterday morning.

He thanked the Seychelles Ports Authority (SPA) who has provided them with the office to conduct their operations.

“I believe that the work and service we provide will be more readily available to seafarers as they will not have to walk to town to get our service,” he said.

He said equally for the new centre, they aim to bring all their services closer to the people of Seychelles and to make the process easier.