St Helena : Passport Nightmare Deprives Youth Leader a Voice at CYP
Submitted by Saint Helena Herald (Juanita Brock) 24.04.2005 (Article Archived on 08.05.2005)
A “tampered passport” denies Julie George, New Horizons Youth Leader, the opportunity to attend the Third Commonwealth Youth Parliament this month.
Passport Nightmare Deprives Youth Leader a Voice at CYP
Paul George
A “tampered passport” denies Julie George, New Horizons Youth Leader, the opportunity to attend the Third Commonwealth Youth Parliament this month.
Julie George became the new Youth Leader for New Horizons late last year and in an interview with her in December last year, she was really thrilled that she had been selected to represent St. Helena’s youth in this year’s Commonwealth Youth Parliament, which commenced last Monday and will end this Sunday. The event took place in Queensland, Australia. She left the Island on the 8th April and arrived at Walvis Bay on Tuesday the 12th April, then flew from Walvis Bay to Johannesburg the same day, hoping to be in London’s Heathrow Airport the following day, but unfortunately, this never happened.
As Julie went through the immigration process in Jo’Burg, her passport was seized and Julie could not proceed with her flight! Officials in Jo’Burg have claimed that the passport was “tampered with.” Julie’s father, Alan George, is very concerned and frustrated over the incident. Alan felt that people might have the impression that his daughter had fiddled with her passport. In fact, her passport is quite valid, as she has only held it since 2003! The St. Helena Immigration issued the passport to Julie.
Julie told her father during a telephone conversation that officials in Jo’Burg say there was a misprint with her passport number! Julie was petrified and aggravated with the incident. She spent 12 hours at the Airport reception waiting for information and was finally given a room at 2am in the morning. The Chief of Police, Derek Thomas, is concerned with the passport especially as it was his department that issued it. However, he explained that no specific details could be given until St. Helena Immigration recovers the passport on Julie’s return. SHG did try to get Julie a temporary or emergency passport, but Derek had already arranged a flight back to Walvis Bay for Julie, through Adam Kossowksi, St. Helena’s representative in Cape Town. Julie flew back to Walvis Bay around the 13th of April. Officials had warned her that if she left Walvis Bay she could be deported! She will return on the RMS St. Helena this weekend.
Michael Stevens of New Horizons is very sympathetic for Julie as he was faced with similar circumstances a few years ago and notes that it is a very complicated and frightening situation. He is very disappointed that Julie was not able to attend the Youth Parliament, but appreciates the fact that Giselle Richards will be able to represent St. Helena in Australia. Originally, Julie was booked to travel to Cape Town where she would have taken a flight to Jo ’Burg, onto Heathrow. She would have stayed in the UK for three days, obtain her visa from Australia House in London and then fly to Australia, with a stop-over in Brunei. However, a few days before she left the Island, SHG changed the route mainly to coincide with the Youth Parliament’s timing.
Comment
The whole affair has been frustrating for Julie and her family and naturally there are questions as to why Julie’s travels actually took her away from Australia! Could she not have flown directly from Cape Town to Brisbane and have her visa forwarded to her!
This could have been a cheaper route for SHG as well! Julie was selected in November for this event. Surely this was adequate timing to put together a visa for the young youth leader and not send her half way around the world to collect one! Another Saint couple that recently travelled to Australia arranged for their visa’s to be in Perth Airport, to be collected on their arrival. Their visa’s were actually applied for online, (www.eta.immi.gov.au) prior to them leaving St. Helena.
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