TURKEY tr-diplomacy
Turkey to introduce biometric passports in June
ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News | 3/25/2010 12:00:00 AM |
Turkey is set to finalize two required preliminaries to the visa exemption it seeks with the European Union - biometric passports and a readmission agreement.
Turkey is set to finalize two required preliminaries to the visa exemption it seeks with the European Union – biometric passports and a readmission agreement.
In line with EU standards, Turkish officials are set to introduce biometric passports, which use electronic technology to authenticate travelers’ identities, in June.
“Prototype passports are ready. The physical preparations are under way in all consulates and police departments and the required machines will be put into service in May,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Burak Özügergin said Wednesday.
“We’re working to introduce new passports June 1,” he added. “The current passports will be valid during the transition period, until 2015.”
The dark-blue passports used by ordinary citizens will be issued in a burgundy color, like those EU citizens carry; currently red-colored diplomatic passports will be issued in black.
A Turkish-Malaysian consortium had earlier won the tender to produce the new biometric passports but the contract was terminated in September 2009 when the prototypes failed to meet requirements. The government subsequently decided to print the new passports in the Darphane, or state mint. The French digital-security company Gemalto will provide the chips for the passports.
The machinery to print the new biometric passports is estimated to cost 5 million Turkish Liras, according to official sources.
[HH] Near to readmission agreement
Turkish and EU diplomats are also close to reaching a satisfactory conclusion to their readmission negotiations, which cover what happens to illegal immigrants seized in the EU after entering the bloc through Turkey, and who deals with their asylum or deportation.
“The agreement will preserve the rights of Turkish workers abroad,” Özügergin said. “We are also seeking to secure funds for burden-sharing.”
The final aim of these efforts is visa exemption, the Foreign Ministry spokesman said. “That’s our demand. We think the [readmission] agreement will eliminate one of the major obstacles on the way toward visa exemption,” Özügergin said. “Our stance is quite clear... We don’t want visa flexibility, but total exemption.”
The spokesman also noted that there has been “significant progress” since the European Court of Human Rights ruled that visa requirements cannot be imposed on Turkish nationals entering the territory of an EU member state in order to provide services there on behalf of a company or project established in Turkey.
Turkey is also tightening its border security in an effort to ease worries in the European Union about the effects of such changes.
A Reform Monitoring Group – made up of the country’s EU affairs minister, justice minister, interior minister, foreign minister and the chairs of relevant parliamentary committees as well as high-level officials from related public institutions – has put the work-related visa exemption prompted by the European court at the top of its agenda.
“Turkey is doing its homework, including [boosting] border security,” Özügergin said.