Jeevan A. Robinson
Friday, April 8, 2016
The African Union (AU) passport was recently launched during the 27th African Union Summit recently held in Kigali, Rwanda.
The AU passport is presently only available to government officials and diplomats. Word coming out of the Summit, is that it will take a while yet before it becomes available to everyday citizens. Issues of immigration controls with the new passport and how to stamp out potential terrorists in some African states gaining access to borderless travel across the continent, first have to be ironed out.
The idea of an African Union passport was first circulated in 2013, and it was put forward as a means to assist in the creation of a borderless Africa. A borderless Africa is seen as fundamental to assist in the acceleration of socio-economic growth, boosting of tourism, and increasing intra-African trade.
According to information coming out of the summit, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, outgoing Chairperson for the African Union, stated that with the launch of the AU passport, the African Union, as a body, has been able to cross off two big items on its to-do list.
At the summit, the new passport was presented to the incoming chairperson of the African Union, His Excellency Idriss Deby Itno, the President of Chad. 
