From Fiji Times Monday, November 1, 2004

The rise in number of tourists entering the country with fake passports is worrying the Immigration Department. The department wants to inject more money into its Information Technology Department to address the loopholes in its computer system at NadiInternationalAirport.

It is expected to make the work of immigration officers at Fiji's port of entry easier and faster. However, Immigration Departments manager permit and IT system Tui Koroiveibau said more was to be done in terms of integrating the departments five modules to enable it to develop the Advance Passenger Processing System. The system allows airlines to verify a passenger's travel authority at check-in and send advance passenger information to relevant local or overseas agencies using the Electronic Travel Authority communication network.

The system allows airlines to fully automate the capture of passenger and flight information and print it on the front of a passenger card. Mr. Koroiveibau said an identifier was simultaneously  coded onto the magnetic swipe section of the card to retrieve passenger movement details in Fiji.

Apart from Australia and New Zealand, the system is available in Western Samoa for the processing of all passengers traveling on participating airlines flying to and from major international airports. "Fiji is the hub of the Pacific and we have always thought of us as the leaders of the region but Samoa has already got the APP system and we have not," Mr. Koroiveibau said.

"This is a system that makes our work faster, efficient and enables immigration to catch anyone trying to enter the country illegally, overstaying or coming in with illegal permits. " With Fiji being given the Approved Tourist Destination status by China, we will be expecting more tourists and we need to be the system in place before it?s too late." Information Minister Simione kaitani said the Chinese Government had given Fiji $40million loan to upgrade its IT system around the country.

He said the Immigration Department was one of the departments identified to undergo a major upgrading of its IT system which would include integrating of the systems to start as early as January 2005. Last Saturday, Immigration officers started using the new computer system at NadiAirport.

Mr. Koroiveibau said the system would be able to monitor overstayers and catch illegal immigrants entering the country. He said immigration officers would now use passport-reading machines to check passports of travellers instead of checking it  manually, which took a lot of time. He said immigration officers would now be able to keep a better tab on overstayers.