Activist Wendell Eversley has launched a bid to obtain more than four decades of Government records relating to the administration of diplomatic and official passports, saying the disclosure is needed to determine if successive administrations have applied the law consistently.Through his attorney, Renuka Sagramsingh-Sooklal, Eversley yesterday submitted a formal request under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act to the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Foreign and Caricom Affairs and the Chief Immigration Officer. He is seeking access to policies, legal opinions, Cabinet documents, statistical records and other official documents governing the issuance, retention, suspension and revocation of diplomatic and official passports.
Attorney: Renuka Sagramsingh-Sooklal
The request comes amid heightened public debate over the Government’s handling of diplomatic passports and whether decisions affecting former public office-holders have been applied uniformly.In the accompanying letter, Sagramsingh-Sooklal said her client was not pursuing the issue from a partisan standpoint but was seeking transparency and accountability in the exercise of executive power.“My client neither approaches this matter from a partisan perspective nor seeks to advance any political narrative,” the attorney wrote.“Rather, he seeks to ascertain whether the powers entrusted to the Executive have been exercised consistently, lawfully, rationally and in accordance with established legal principles over successive administrations.”Sagramsingh-Sooklal argued that diplomatic passports are not ordinary travel documents but instruments through which the State extends sovereign privileges and international recognition to designated office-holders.She said there was an “overwhelming public interest” in understanding who qualifies for diplomatic and official passports, the criteria used to issue them, the circumstances under which they may be retained after leaving office, the legal basis for their cancellation or revocation and the safeguards in place to ensure executive powers are exercised consistently.What the FOI seeksThe FOI request seeks documents covering three periods: January 1, 1981 to April 28, 2025; May 2, 2025 to May 3, 2026; and May 4, 2026 to the date of the ministry’s response.Among the documents requested are all policies, manuals, circulars and directives governing diplomatic and official passports; records identifying the categories of people eligible to receive them; documents identifying the authorities responsible for approving, renewing, cancelling and recovering passports; Cabinet notes and decisions dealing with eligibility criteria; legal opinions prepared by the ministry, the Chief State Solicitor or the Attorney General; and statistical records showing the number of diplomatic and official passports issued, cancelled and currently in circulation.Eversley has also requested records identifying whether spouses, children or dependants of office-holders qualify for diplomatic or official passports, as well as documents dealing with the surrender or recovery of passports following resignation, retirement, dismissal, loss of office or a change of government.
