The East African Community (EAC) Heads of State have announced the internationalization of the EAC passport and launching of the electronic-East African passport for the region’s citizens by January 2017.
The e-passport which will apparently phase-out the national passports, will allow citizens of Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi to travel across the regional and the passport will also allow international travel.
The new digitized passport replaces the old EAC travel document, which was restricted for travel within the five member states. The e-passport will ease movement within and outside the community, fulfilling the mandates of the EAC Treaty Article 104:3 and the Common Market Protocol on the free movement of people Article 8. The EAC e-passport is expected to have additional security features to protect against identity theft and data skimming. The e-passport will also have an electronic chip that holds the same information in bio metric form that is printed on the passport’s bio data page, including the holder’s name, date of birth, passport number and what the holder does for a living, among other things. It will also contain a bio metric identifier, a digital photograph of the holder and security features to prevent unauthorized reading or scanning, which will in turn reduce cases of forgery.
The African Development Bank has also just launched the first Africa Visa Openness Index, report which shows how Africa remains largely closed off to African travelers. On average Africans need visas to travel to 55% of other African countries, can get visas on arrival in only 25% of other countries and don’t need a visa to travel to just 20% of other countries on the continent.
The report highlights regional and geographical differences. Currently, 75% of countries in the top 20 most visa-open countries on the continent are in West Africa or East Africa. Already citizens from Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda can use national identity cards to travel in these states without the use of passports.
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