Minister of Immigration and Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell said yesterday that his ministry is well aware of the many recurring problems at the Passport Office and at the United States Embassy and is doing all it can to resolve the issues.

As it is the summer time this means many Bahamians will be travelling and Mr. Mitchell si asking that person be patient and apply for their documents on time, however it is not the application process h says that is causing the delay issue.

“The best I can do to the public is to urge maximum patience to the public on this as yet it again this is a summer of hell on the question of passports and we are trying our best to manage the issue,” he said.

“One of the things we are thinking bout is perhaps getting another site temporarily to allow people to enroll which is more comfortable certainly to collect because the lines that you see are largely due to collection issues and not enrollment issues.”

Mr. Mitchell says he is completely sensitive to the issues and noted that there are a cascade of problems that must be dealt with before the situation can be completely resolved.

“The passport office is in the middle of a perfect storm, 12 weeks is about what is on average to be expected, you can pay for the express service but even with the express service we have had a number of events,” Mr. Mitchell said

“For example last week power failed, generator failed, wiring was deficient and now we have the air condition broken down. So it’s just a cascading set of problems.”

He said he wants to assure Bahamians however that every avenue is being taken to ensure that the process is much more manageable.

Mr. Mitchell said moreover they are trying to meet as best they can all of the emergency situations but ultimately patience is needed.