Registry urges public to return blue birth certificates

By GYNNIE KERO
The Civil and Identity Registry Office is recalling the blue birth certificates and urging the public to return them for new ones that have security features.
Registrar-General Dickson Kiragi said the blue certificates did not contain security features.
“We are advising clients to come with blue certificates and we will give them priority service to replace them with new birth certificates.
“The certificates would go together with the NID cards for those 18 years and above,” Kiragi said.
National Planning and Monitoring Minister Charles Abel pointed out that the issue about the Iranian who obtained Government documents and fled the country to Fiji was because of the old system of registration.
“If the new system (biometric registration) was used we would have picked it up.
“This was one of the benefits of the biometric system.
“No more blue birth certificates.
“You cannot just come in with a blue paper without link to anybody.
“No more blue certificates in terms of land registration, passports.”
Meanwhile, Abel said the National Identification (NID) project continued to be rolled out in the country despite being affected by cash flow problems.
The NID card, amongst others, would prevent identity theft in the country. To date, 15 NID offices have been opened in the provinces with around 300,000 National Identification cards issued to people since 2015.