Vanuatuan passport
Encyclopedia
The Vanuatu passport is an international travel document
that is issued to Vanuatu
citizens.
as well as the text "Republic of Vanuatu" and "Passport" in both English and French. Inside, the following bilingual text appears:
As late as 2010, Vanuatu passports were still hand-written, presenting the possibility of crime and fraud in their use; New Zealand pledged to use part of its NZ$
19 million foreign aid to Vanuatu that year to assist the country in moving to a fully electronic system. The new passports were planned to begin production in December 2010; they would include biometric
data, and be manufactured by a German company. The first new biometric passports were issued ahead of schedule in September 2010, to acting minister for internal affairs Paul Telukluk
, two twin boys, and a migrant labourer planning to work abroad under a Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme. Telukluk expressed hopes that the new passports would meet international requirements and expand the list of jurisdictions which allowed visa-free entry for Vanuatu citizens.
With the new biometric passports being available, Henri Tamashiro of the passports office stated in late September 2010 that his office planned to cancel all old diplomatic passports within a month.
, or pursuant to a court order against a person who has been granted bail, remanded in custody or sentenced to a term of imprisonment or a fine. Additionally, Vanuatu does not recognise multiple citizenship
; as such, a Vanuatu passport holder who can be shown to have crossed an international border using any other passport may have his Vanuatu passport confiscated.
According to Act 30 of 1984 (CAP 179), the minister of foreign affairs may issue diplomatic passports to:
According to the same act, the minister of foreign affairs may issue official passports to:
Additionally, the spouses of anyone travelling on an diplomatic or official passport may also be granted the same type of passport, provided they are travelling on duty at the expense of the government of Vanuatu. Finally, the minister of foreign affairs has the authority to grant diplomatic or official passports to any person in respect of whom he or she considers exceptional circumstances apply.
Beginning in 2010, the ministry of foreign affairs no longer directly issues diplomatic passports; instead, the ministry makes a recommendation to the immigration department, wherein the passports office is responsible for issuance.
, the Marshall Islands
, or Nauru
, there is no legal basis for such programmes under Vanuatu law.
In 1994, two Australian real estate developers presented schemes to the Vanuatu government involving the sale of Vanuatu passports to investors. In the first, real estate developer John Avram and his Melbourne
-based associates suggested developing an offshore financial centre
on Moso Island
with its own bank, casino, companies registrar, financial markets, and through it to offer Vanuatu residency and citizenship to business investors. The scheme was approved but never came to fruition. Later in the same year, the Olilian group proposed attracting roughly 3,000 wealthy Asian investors by establishing a offshore financial centre and free trade zone
with commercial, hotel, medical, and residential facilities at Luganville
on the island of Espiritu Santo
and offering Vanuatu passports to investors. However, the promoters were charged with fraud the following year, and the scheme failed.
In March 1997, Richard Jae-yong Jung, a South Korea
n national with an earlier criminal conviction for sale of military goods as well as outstanding charges of securities counterfeiting in his home country, approached then-Prime Minister Serge Vohor
, Finance Minister Willie Jimmy
, and later Foreign Minister Vital Soksok to propose a "passports-for-cash" scheme whereby his company Resort Las Vegas would build a 350-room, US$100 million hotel, and grant investors in the hotel Vanuatu permanent residency and passports, for a suggested price of 700,000 vatu
each. Jong was granted honorary citizenship of Vanuatu on April 29, and received an ordinary Vanuatu passport on May 5. In September that year, he was appointed Vanuatu Trade Commissioner to South Korea, and also received an official passport. The Vanuatu Office of the Ombudsman found that Soksok and Vohor had "acted in a grossly incompetent and naive manner" and suggested they resign, and also proposed a number of changes to the passport issuance system.
In 2007, Vanuatu minister of foreign affairs George Wells announced that his ministry would cancel forty previously issued diplomatic passports out of a total of 248 outstanding, in an effort to impose tighter controls on their future use. However, there continued to be concern that officials were illegally selling Vanuatu passports. A further forty diplomatic passports were cancelled in 2009 by minister Joe Natuman, following reports that European countries had expressed concern over their misuse. Prime minister Edward Natapei
even commented in a Radio New Zealand
interview that he had been delayed by customs officials in various countries while they checked that his country existed, that he was really its prime minister, and that his diplomatic passport was valid. In November 2010, Alex Chung, Vanuatu's former honorary consul to Singapore, was arrested for illegal possession of a diplomatic passport. The Passport Act of 2009 further tightened the requirements for diplomatic passports, and granted sole authority for their issuance to a newly formed Passport Services body. Nevertheless, in late 2010, a local newspaper reported that the number of foreigners holding Vanuatu diplomatic passports was still higher than the number of Vanuatu citizens holding the same.
In late 2009, a scandal arose over the issuance of a Vanuatu passport to Amarendra Nath Ghosh. Ghosh was Vanuatu's erstwhile honorary consul in Thailand
. In addition to the diplomatic passport to which his position entitled him, Ghosh had also managed to obtain an ordinary Vanuatu passport, a privilege legally restricted to Vanuatu citizens. Ghosh had never applied for naturalisation as a Vanuatu citizen, but had honorary citizenship in connection with his position. In early January 2010, Citizenship Commission head Joemelson Joseph wrote to Immigration Department principal passport officer Henri Tamashiro to advise him that Ghosh had not forfeited his Vanuatu passport, implying that the passport should be renewed; Joseph's handling of the matter led to condemnation from the prime minister. Ghosh claimed to be trapped in India due to his lack of a travel document, and in late January 2010 threatened to sue the Vanuatu government. However, the Citizenship Commission held an emergency meeting at which the affirmed that Ghosh was not a Vanuatu citizen and thus not entitled to renewal of his passport. Joseph was absent from the meeting.
Travel document
A travel document is an identity document issued by a government or international treaty organization to facilitate the movement of individuals or small groups of persons across international boundaries...
that is issued to Vanuatu
Vanuatu
Vanuatu , officially the Republic of Vanuatu , is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is some east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, west of Fiji, and southeast of the Solomon Islands, near New Guinea.Vanuatu was...
citizens.
Basic appearance
Ordinary passports have green covers. According to law, the passport is required to show on its cover the coat of arms of VanuatuCoat of arms of Vanuatu
The Coat of arms of Vanuatu features a Melanesian warrior superimposed on a boar's tusk, over a scroll that reads Long God yumi stanap ....
as well as the text "Republic of Vanuatu" and "Passport" in both English and French. Inside, the following bilingual text appears:
- The President of the Republic of Vanuatu requests and requires in the name of the Republic all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer peacefully to pass without let or hinderance and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary.
- Au nom de la Nation, le President de la Republique de Vanuatu prie instamment toutes les autorites competentes de bien vouloir laisser passer librement le titulaire du present passeport et de lui offrir assistance et protection le cas echeant.
As late as 2010, Vanuatu passports were still hand-written, presenting the possibility of crime and fraud in their use; New Zealand pledged to use part of its NZ$
New Zealand dollar
The New Zealand dollar is the currency of New Zealand. It also circulates in the Cook Islands , Niue, Tokelau, and the Pitcairn Islands. It is divided into 100 cents....
19 million foreign aid to Vanuatu that year to assist the country in moving to a fully electronic system. The new passports were planned to begin production in December 2010; they would include biometric
Biometric passport
A biometric passport, also known as an e-passport or ePassport, is a combined paper and electronic passport that contains biometric information that can be used to authenticate the identity of travelers...
data, and be manufactured by a German company. The first new biometric passports were issued ahead of schedule in September 2010, to acting minister for internal affairs Paul Telukluk
Paul Telukluk
Paul Barthelemy Telukluk is a ni-Vanuatu politician.In 2000, he was the co-founder, along with Father Gérard Leymang and Vincent Boulekone, of the Green Confederation, to "promote sustainable development balancing custom, the environment, social welfare, free enterprise and regional autonomy...
, two twin boys, and a migrant labourer planning to work abroad under a Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme. Telukluk expressed hopes that the new passports would meet international requirements and expand the list of jurisdictions which allowed visa-free entry for Vanuatu citizens.
With the new biometric passports being available, Henri Tamashiro of the passports office stated in late September 2010 that his office planned to cancel all old diplomatic passports within a month.
Legal authority for issuance
Act 3 of 1987 (CAP 108) describes the legal framework for the issuance of ordinary passports. The law requires the Principal Passport Officer to issue passports to all citizens of Vanuatu who apply, as long as he or she is satisfied with the evidence of citizenship that the applicant presents. Under Subsection 12, passports may be confiscated in accordance with emergency regulations declared under Article 69 of the Constitution of VanuatuConstitution of Vanuatu
The Constitution of Vanuatu is the supreme law of the Republic of Vanuatu. It was enacted in 1979, and came into force upon the country's independence on 30 July 1980....
, or pursuant to a court order against a person who has been granted bail, remanded in custody or sentenced to a term of imprisonment or a fine. Additionally, Vanuatu does not recognise multiple citizenship
Multiple citizenship
Multiple citizenship is a status in which a person is concurrently regarded as a citizen under the laws of more than one state. Multiple citizenships exist because different countries use different, and not necessarily mutually exclusive, citizenship requirements...
; as such, a Vanuatu passport holder who can be shown to have crossed an international border using any other passport may have his Vanuatu passport confiscated.
According to Act 30 of 1984 (CAP 179), the minister of foreign affairs may issue diplomatic passports to:
- The president of VanuatuPresident of VanuatuThe President of Vanuatu is the head of state of Vanuatu. The President is elected for a five-year term by an electoral college consisting of Parliament and the presidents of the regional councils.The President's role is mostly ceremonial...
- The prime minister of Vanuatu
- The speaker of the parliament of VanuatuParliament of VanuatuThe Parliament is the unicameral legislative body of the Republic of Vanuatu.It was established by chapter 4 of the 1980 Constitution, upon Vanuatu's independence from France and the United Kingdom....
- Government ministers of Vanuatu
- Ambassadors of Vanuatu
- High commissioners of Vanuatu
- Personnel of Vanuatu's ministry of foreign affairs (diplomatic and consular staff)
- Leader of a delegation or sole Vanuatu representative at international conference or bilateral or multilateral negotiations
- Diplomatic couriers
According to the same act, the minister of foreign affairs may issue official passports to:
- Members of the parliament of VanuatuParliament of VanuatuThe Parliament is the unicameral legislative body of the Republic of Vanuatu.It was established by chapter 4 of the 1980 Constitution, upon Vanuatu's independence from France and the United Kingdom....
- The chief justice of Vanuatu
- The attorney general of Vanuatu
- Judges of the supreme court of Vanuatu
- Solicitor-general magistrates of Vanuatu
- The Commissioner of Police Ombudsman
- Chairman of the National Council of Chiefs
- Officers of the Vanuatu government and parliament
Additionally, the spouses of anyone travelling on an diplomatic or official passport may also be granted the same type of passport, provided they are travelling on duty at the expense of the government of Vanuatu. Finally, the minister of foreign affairs has the authority to grant diplomatic or official passports to any person in respect of whom he or she considers exceptional circumstances apply.
Beginning in 2010, the ministry of foreign affairs no longer directly issues diplomatic passports; instead, the ministry makes a recommendation to the immigration department, wherein the passports office is responsible for issuance.
Illegal issuance
Along with other South Pacific island nations, Vanuatu has been accused of selling its passports for cash, primarily to people from Asia; Marie Noelle-Peterson of the Vanuatu Office of the Ombudsman in particular has repeatedly condemned successive Vanuatu governments for this practise, as well as for their handling of the money earned thereby. For example, in the period 1996–1997, roughly 300 Vanuatu passports are believed to have been sold under "passports-for-cash" programmes. Unlike in TongaTonga
Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga , is a state and an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprising 176 islands scattered over of ocean in the South Pacific...
, the Marshall Islands
Marshall Islands
The Republic of the Marshall Islands , , is a Micronesian nation of atolls and islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, just west of the International Date Line and just north of the Equator. As of July 2011 the population was 67,182...
, or Nauru
Nauru
Nauru , officially the Republic of Nauru and formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country in Micronesia in the South Pacific. Its nearest neighbour is Banaba Island in Kiribati, to the east. Nauru is the world's smallest republic, covering just...
, there is no legal basis for such programmes under Vanuatu law.
In 1994, two Australian real estate developers presented schemes to the Vanuatu government involving the sale of Vanuatu passports to investors. In the first, real estate developer John Avram and his Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
-based associates suggested developing an offshore financial centre
Offshore financial centre
An offshore financial centre , though not precisely defined, is usually a small, low-tax jurisdiction specializing in providing corporate and commercial services to non-resident offshore companies, and for the investment of offshore funds....
on Moso Island
Moso (island)
Moso Island is an island in Vanuatu, in Shefa Province. Along with Lelepa Island, it creates the harbour at north Efate known as Port Havannah. This harbour was a focal point during World War II, with many troops stationed there, including posts on Moso itself...
with its own bank, casino, companies registrar, financial markets, and through it to offer Vanuatu residency and citizenship to business investors. The scheme was approved but never came to fruition. Later in the same year, the Olilian group proposed attracting roughly 3,000 wealthy Asian investors by establishing a offshore financial centre and free trade zone
Free trade zone
A free trade zone or export processing zone , also called foreign-trade zone, formerly free port is an area within which goods may be landed, handled, manufactured or reconfigured, and reexported without the intervention of the customs authorities...
with commercial, hotel, medical, and residential facilities at Luganville
Luganville
Luganville, called "Santo" by people from Vanuatu's northern islands who use Luganville as their big city, and called "Kanal" by rural residents of the large island of Espiritu Santo, is the second largest city in Vanuatu. The population is .Luganville is one of Vanuatu's busiest ports,...
on the island of Espiritu Santo
Espiritu Santo
Espiritu Santo is the largest island in the nation of Vanuatu, with an area of . It belongs to the archipelago of the New Hebrides in the Pacific region of Melanesia. It is in the Sanma Province of Vanuatu....
and offering Vanuatu passports to investors. However, the promoters were charged with fraud the following year, and the scheme failed.
In March 1997, Richard Jae-yong Jung, a South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
n national with an earlier criminal conviction for sale of military goods as well as outstanding charges of securities counterfeiting in his home country, approached then-Prime Minister Serge Vohor
Serge Vohor
Rialuth Serge Vohor is a politician from Vanuatu. He hails from the largest island of Vanuatu, Espiritu Santo, from Port Olry.He is a member of the Union of Moderate Parties, a conservative, Francophone political party. When his party came to power in 1991, Vohor became foreign minister of Vanuatu...
, Finance Minister Willie Jimmy
Willie Jimmy
Willie Jimmy Tapangararua, often just referred to as Willie Jimmy, is a Vanuatu politician with the National United Party.-Career:Jimmy formerly served as Vanuatu's Minister of Finance...
, and later Foreign Minister Vital Soksok to propose a "passports-for-cash" scheme whereby his company Resort Las Vegas would build a 350-room, US$100 million hotel, and grant investors in the hotel Vanuatu permanent residency and passports, for a suggested price of 700,000 vatu
Vanuatu vatu
The vatu is the currency of Vanuatu.The vatu has no subdivisions.-History:The vatu was introduced in 1982, after independence, to replace the New Hebrides franc at par...
each. Jong was granted honorary citizenship of Vanuatu on April 29, and received an ordinary Vanuatu passport on May 5. In September that year, he was appointed Vanuatu Trade Commissioner to South Korea, and also received an official passport. The Vanuatu Office of the Ombudsman found that Soksok and Vohor had "acted in a grossly incompetent and naive manner" and suggested they resign, and also proposed a number of changes to the passport issuance system.
In 2007, Vanuatu minister of foreign affairs George Wells announced that his ministry would cancel forty previously issued diplomatic passports out of a total of 248 outstanding, in an effort to impose tighter controls on their future use. However, there continued to be concern that officials were illegally selling Vanuatu passports. A further forty diplomatic passports were cancelled in 2009 by minister Joe Natuman, following reports that European countries had expressed concern over their misuse. Prime minister Edward Natapei
Edward Natapei
Edward Nipake Natapei Tuta Fanua`araki is a politician from Vanuatu. He was elected Prime Minister of Vanuatu on two separate terms, and was previously the Minister of Foreign Affairs briefly in 1991, the acting President of Vanuatu from 2 March 1999 to 24 March 1999 , and Deputy Prime Minister...
even commented in a Radio New Zealand
Radio New Zealand
Radio New Zealand is a New Zealand public service radio broadcaster and Crown entity formed by the Radio New Zealand Act 1995. It operates news, current affairs and arts network Radio New Zealand National and classical music and jazz network Radio New Zealand Concert with full government funding...
interview that he had been delayed by customs officials in various countries while they checked that his country existed, that he was really its prime minister, and that his diplomatic passport was valid. In November 2010, Alex Chung, Vanuatu's former honorary consul to Singapore, was arrested for illegal possession of a diplomatic passport. The Passport Act of 2009 further tightened the requirements for diplomatic passports, and granted sole authority for their issuance to a newly formed Passport Services body. Nevertheless, in late 2010, a local newspaper reported that the number of foreigners holding Vanuatu diplomatic passports was still higher than the number of Vanuatu citizens holding the same.
In late 2009, a scandal arose over the issuance of a Vanuatu passport to Amarendra Nath Ghosh. Ghosh was Vanuatu's erstwhile honorary consul in Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
. In addition to the diplomatic passport to which his position entitled him, Ghosh had also managed to obtain an ordinary Vanuatu passport, a privilege legally restricted to Vanuatu citizens. Ghosh had never applied for naturalisation as a Vanuatu citizen, but had honorary citizenship in connection with his position. In early January 2010, Citizenship Commission head Joemelson Joseph wrote to Immigration Department principal passport officer Henri Tamashiro to advise him that Ghosh had not forfeited his Vanuatu passport, implying that the passport should be renewed; Joseph's handling of the matter led to condemnation from the prime minister. Ghosh claimed to be trapped in India due to his lack of a travel document, and in late January 2010 threatened to sue the Vanuatu government. However, the Citizenship Commission held an emergency meeting at which the affirmed that Ghosh was not a Vanuatu citizen and thus not entitled to renewal of his passport. Joseph was absent from the meeting.