The Central Immigration and Passport Office has so far issued over 15,000 of the new machine readable passports since the launching of the new document on July 13 last year.
Deputy Chief Immigration Officer George Vyphuis told this newspaper in an invited comment that on an average day the passport office issues about 140 of the documents. Meanwhile the passport office has been better able to control the crowds which throng its premises daily for different transactions. According to Vyphuis, the system is now very orderly and every effort is being made to ensure that persons remain off the road.