By EDDIE OSIFELO
MINISTRY of Commerce, Industry, Labour and Immigration opened a mobile unit at the National Auditorium on Monday to deal with enrolment of passports for those applying for season workers programme in Australia and New Zealand.
This is a temporary measure to ease the pressure on the influx of people crowding the head office in Honiara.
Permanent Secretary, Riley Mesepitu said the gathering at the head office was too crowded and sometimes disturbed the flow of vehicles from the Office of Prime Minister and Cabinet and movement of employees of other departments.
Mesepitu said people came in for enrolment and processing of passports.
However, he said for printing of passports, they will still need to go to the head office.
Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday are allocated for those applying for the seasonal workers programme.
Tuesdays and Thursday are allocated for non-seasonal workers.
So far, the Passport Unit has issued more than 13,000 passports worth $10.7m in the past 18 months.
More than 90 percent of the issuance is from season workers.
More than 4000 workers are currently abroad for the seasonal workers programme and expected to hit more than 5000 by 2023.
