Belize this morning held official ceremonies in the Capital City, Belmopan, inaugurating the new CARICOM passport as a part of the suite of initiatives under the agenda of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).
The new passport, according to Immigration Director Gareth Murillo, features the Belize Coat of Arms and the CARICOM logo, along with the words Caribbean Community on the face of it.
Murillo also announced that the Belize/CARICOM passport is customized with the country’s national symbols on the inside of the front cover.
Present for this morning’s launch was National Security and Immigration Minister, Carlos Perdomo, who said that the implementation of the CARICOM passport will be of advantage to Belizeans.
Minister Perdomo was the first recipient of the new passport, along with his CEO, Retired Brigadier General Lloyd Gillett, and National Coast Guard Commander, Cedric Borland.
The Belize/CARICOM passport has 48 pages, printed in a rainbow of colors and featuring maps of Belize’s six districts.
If you are holding on to an old Belize passport, there is no need to panic. Government says that they are valid until their expiration date; however, Government advises those whose passports are not machine readable to apply now for a new passport.
3M Security Systems Division of Ottawa, Canada, collaborated with the Immigration and Nationality Department in the concept for the new passport.
Suriname blazed the trail by being the first to introduce the common CARICOM passport in 2005. That same year, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, St. Kitts/Nevis, and Dominica followed. In 2006, Antigua & Barbuda issued the CARCOM passport. St Lucia, Trinidad & Tobago, and Grenada, Barbados, and Guyana came on line in 2007.
Jamaica was the last country, before Belize, to introduce its version of the passport in January. Belize is the 12th.
Like the Caribbean, Central America is also entertaining the notion of a common passport for the region, and it is notable that while Belize had pre-committed itself to the CARICOM passport, the last page of the booklet features the Belize flag with the country of Belize, and maps of the countries of both CARICOM and the Central American Integration System (SICA), signaling its connection to both sub-regions, though Belize will, obviously, not implement a Central American passport.