New ID-cards imply problems for citizens, legalization of corruption scams – expert

New biometric passports or ID-cards, recently approved by the Ukrainian Parliament, are artificially tied to the visa-free regime and legalize illegal “scams” with a corruption effect.

Viktor Tymoshchuk, the expert at the Center for Political and Legal Reforms, said this on the air of Hromadske Radio.

According to him, these passports will not facilitate getting EU visas as it is just the replacement of the internal passport: a plastic card with a chip instead of a paper booklet.

“Here we have an artificial peg to the visa-free regime. The government uses this issue to push its interests that are often not honest. The new internal passport will not actually provide any additional opportunities for the citizens,” Tymoshchuk said.

“However, I believe that it will create many problems for the citizens, even starting with the payment for a passport. If you look through the law, it is possible to predict the price of UAH 300 USD. The children, who fall within the first wave of the new passport system, will be issued a document, or a form, at least, at the expense of the state budget. The rest will have to pay for a passport by themselves,” Tymoshchuk said.

Also, he said, there is a problem in terms of use. The passport will not contain information about the place of residence, which can cause discomfort while getting services at banks, hospitals and the places where such information was previously required.

As the expert noted, the positive provisions of the law on passports are their issuance to 14-year-olds, driving license without chips, a smaller amount of personal information in the Unified State Demographic Registry.

At the same time, the law legalized a number of illegal “scams” with an obvious corruption effect in the passport field, for example, the opacity of payments for passport services and the possibility of imposing additional paid services.

The expert adds that the law was passed in extremely dubious and non-transparent manner. The bill was drafted by the Interior Ministry, and, though it concerns every citizen, it was registered in the parliament with a comment “does not require consultations with the public.”

July 14, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine passed the law on amendments to certain laws of Ukraine concerning the documents confirming the citizenship of Ukraine, proving identity or a special status, aimed at liberalizing the EU visa regime for Ukraine.