Information campaign: "You won't
get anywhere without a passport"
ARUBA--With an advertisement campaign in the newspapers, on flyers and posters, the Cabinet of the Governor of Aruba wants to alert the population to the fact that a valid passport is necessary. "You won't get anywhere without a passport," is the message.
The campaign starts today, Monday with ads in the newspapers and flyers and posters at travel agents and the Census Office. The campaign will also be propagated on the website of the Cabinet.
The Cabinet is doing this because travellers with an expired passport can experience a lot of unpleasant situations. Just think of persons becoming sick and urgently needing to go abroad for treatment, who then find out their passport has expired.
Director Harold Boersen of the Cabinet of the Governor says; "To avoid problems and extra costs, we ask everybody to check the expiration date on their passport, or if they do not have a passport, to get one as soon as possible."
People in the Netherlands are also being informed of the need to have a valid passport. In the Netherlands, a person can get a passport within 24 hours. In Aruba, however, it takes three weeks, because it is processed centrally in the Netherlands.
The Cabinet of the Governor can supply a so-called emergency document, but only in extremely urgent cases. The applicant must, for example, prove that his/her passport was lost or stolen, and the medical or humanitarian necessity.
"Oftentimes this is an expensive and complicated process which holds up the issuing of the emergency document. Sometimes we don't even manage to issue such a document to the traveller, which often causes indignation and disappointment because the person cannot travel."
Boersen points out the responsibility of people who are travelling abroad. They need to check whether their passport is valid, whether they need a visa for the country of destination and how long the passport is valid in respect of admittance to a country (some countries require a travel document that is valid for more than six months from the date the holder is admitted).
