 St. Lucia's transition to the E-Passport commenced on 25 July 2022, when the process went live. The Passport Office has been confronted with some internal challenges, while the public have had to grapple with some extended waiting periods and long lines. Minister Albert Poyot noted that although teething pains are unavoidable, management has assured that everything possible is being done to reduce the inconveniences suffered by the public, while also ensuring staff is as comfortable as possible. I thought it was necessary because the Passport situation has been in the limelight for some time now. Right now some of the issues are settling down and people have started understanding the nature of the transition from the machine-readable Passport to the E-Passport. Maintime Assistant Superintendent of Police Sean Alexander assured the public that a new set of logistics are now in effect and will bear out to gradually reduce the extended wait times as regards the attainment of the new passports. We are still seeing 50 persons for the day on collections days, which would be Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays. However, despite we only handing out 50 numbers, we do more than 50, because apart from the 50 that we were taking, any other person who is on that line, an officer would come on the line, run the line in the morning and find out from persons what emergencies they have and listen to what they have to say and determine whether it's emergency. So if persons have to travel back for school, scholarships, medical emergency and any other emergency that they may have and they tell the officer, we would take that into consideration and we still try and assist you, we will not turn you away. The Home Affairs Minister says the Prime Minister and Cabinet members have been and shall continue to be in full support of the E-Passport transition, commencing with an injection of more staff to help expedite the processing and delivery of passports. Reporting from the Department of Home Affairs, I am Claudia Mon-Louis.