Penny demands answers from Alexander on passport shortage

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les is de­mand­ing an­swers from Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Roger Alexan­der over on­go­ing pass­port de­lays, claim­ing cit­i­zens at­tempt­ing to book ap­point­ments are now be­ing as­signed dates as far away as April 2027.

Beck­les is al­so ques­tion­ing whether Gov­ern­ment re­ceived a promised ship­ment of 48,000 pass­port book­lets that was ex­pect­ed to ar­rive in Sep­tem­ber, amid claims that sup­plies at the Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion re­main crit­i­cal­ly low.

Speak­ing at an Op­po­si­tion news con­fer­ence at the Of­fice of the Leader of the Op­po­si­tion in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day, Beck­les said cit­i­zens were be­ing forced to wait months just to se­cure an ap­point­ment, fol­lowed by ad­di­tion­al de­lays be­fore re­ceiv­ing their pass­ports.