The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration (MFAI) reverted to manual processing for departing international passengers yesterday following a major disruption to airport operations caused by a fire that broke out at Rarotonga International Airport.
Acting Principal Immigration Officer, Chere Arthur, said that "an alert was raised with MFAI's Immigration Border Lead, Tereroa Pumati, around 1pm yesterday of a fire at the Rarotonga International Airport. All passengers and staff in the building at the time were safely evacuated."
"An on-site assessment of damage by the fire required recalibration of immigration service delivery by MFAI to a manual process for outgoing passengers yesterday, including the diversion of all outgoing passengers through the Airport VIP lounge before boarding their aircraft," said Arthur.
"As part of this manual process, all passengers, including each child under the age of fifteen, had to complete a departure card by contrast with standard processing, which allows for the inclusion of under 15-year-old travelers on accompanying adult departure cards."
The reversion to manual processing is a fallback procedure for MFAI in the event of a power outage. Further assessment of damage by MFAI this morning will see the continuance of manual processing for departing passengers until the Airport Authority re-opens the departures zone and MFAI's border management system ASYPX is once more operational.
"Fire dousing in bringing yesterday's fire under control has damaged MFAI electronic equipment in the departures zone, so we've reallocated additional staff to departures to ensure timely processing while our arrivals processing will continue uninterrupted via the ASYPX border management system (BMS)," said Arthur.
"The resumption of departures processing via our border management system ASYPX is the priority. However, the safety of our border agencies, airport staff, and passengers are paramount."
MFAI would like to thank partner border agencies and airport staff for their ongoing collaboration and passengers for their patience while it works through this disruption.