Dear Editor,
I decided once and for all to visit the Central Immigration and Passport Office in Georgetown. I left my home in Berbice at 2 am and travelled with the first ferry which left New Amsterdam some time before 3 am on Friday, February 22. It was pouring rain in Georgetown. I arrived by bus at the office at 4.30 am. There were five persons standing in front of the gate of the Passport Office with umbrellas, because it was raining very heavily. We stood there, gates being locked, on the bridge, waiting.
Persons came in one by one, each enquiring who the last person that arrived were. Little did we know we had to wait until about 7.30 am when an Immigration Officer began approaching the new location set up for applicants. After standing, waiting, for nearly three hours, we thought that finally we’d get some relief and the gates would be opened. Were we wrong? The officer arrived and requested that we begin lining up away from the bridge. Then he left.
Not so shortly after, another officer arrived and opened the gate. He also began checking our documents. By this time the line was very long with about 100 persons. Many persons were sent away after they probably did not satisfy the officer’s criteria. One woman was told in a very harsh tone that she did not have the correct documents and had to leave. The woman, who apparently visited the office before and was turned away, was trying to talk to the officer to see how she could’ve gotten in. The officer got very angry and told her, “How many more times I must tell you this, woman?!”
He asked the lady to step aside. I was seated inside. A few minutes later, another woman encountered some words with the same officer. “Don’t raise your voice at me,” he told her.
As I said earlier, I arrived at this office and met about five persons or so. Lo and behold, I was given chit number 23. I was angry at this. What then was the use of arriving at 4.30 am at this office, if others came after me and “bought” their way through the line?
Another officer escorted five persons at a time to the main passport office building and they started processing applications. This, however, was done in a very efficient manner.
We were given new chit numbers at the main office. I received number 29. I left the passport office that day around 9 am and will return some time later this month to uplift my new Machine Readable Passport.
Yours faithfully,
(name and address supplied)
