Interior Ministry Starts Issuing New Passports, No Longer Sees Any Delays

Bratislava, September 20 (TASR) - The Interior Ministry has started issuing passports with new design and security features, Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Voice-SD) told a press conference on Friday, adding that the passports will be given to the people who applied for the document on Tuesday (September 17) at the earliest. The new passports were presented by representatives of the ministry at a press conference on Friday. Minister Sutaj Estok also declared that the ministry no longer sees any delays in the issuance of the documents. "I think that this design of the new modern Slovak passport is worthy of the 21st century. Most importantly, it is available to the people and there will be no danger of the situation that existed here in the summer, that some people didn't receive their travel document within the legally stipulated time limit," stated Sutaj Estok. According to head of the ministry's informatics, telecommunications and security department Martin Hrachala, the new passport includes a new generation chip, microprint, some elements are visible only under UV light and there's also embossed printing on the cover of the document. Hrachala thinks that forging passports will be more difficult also because each double page has its own design. It depicts all the regional cities and eight Slovak cultural monuments on the UNESCO list. am/mcs