Passport was issued legally - Grace Road

Grace Road Group says the passport issued to their member’s son was done legally as he is born in Fiji.

This comes as an investigation is underway to determine how the passport was issued while the Minister for Immigration Pio Tikoduadua has offered to step down temporarily pending the outcome of the investigation to address a serious matter that has recently come to his attention involving the possible unauthorised issuance of passports to the children of individuals associated with the Grace Road human rights allegations.

Tikoduadua says these passports appear to have been issued without his knowledge, without the approval of the Permanent Secretary, and without authorisation from senior management within the Department of Immigration.

He says if confirmed, this constitutes a significant breach of their protocols and raises serious concerns about the internal oversight mechanisms within the department.

The Grace Road Group, in a statement, says they are synonymous with progressive policies as is demonstrable in the projects they have undertaken and completed over the last decade but they are being drawn into unnecessary public discourse as a political target.

They say the fact is that citizens of Fiji received Fijian passports, which is now called ' unauthorized'.

The Group says children born in Fiji are granted citizenship by operation of law and there is no authorisation required of the Minister for Home Affairs and Immigration or his Ministry.

They say the father, a member of Grace Road Group, had done nothing more than apply for a passport for his younger child, who is Fiji citizen and born in Fiji, and obtain a grant of the same while the elder child holds Korean passport.

The Group says they take issue at the timing of the press statement, which they say are unnecessary and demonstrate an incorrect application of the law.

They claim it is no doubt designed to deviate attention and to obscure the factual matrix of the current case of their President before the Lautoka High Court.

Questions have been sent to the Minister for Immigration, Pio Tikoduadua. He is yet to respond.