RP Sydney consulate to reach out to Pinoys in New Caledonia

Philippine officials in Sydney will reach out to Filipinos in the French overseas territory of New Caledonia from Aug. 21 to 23. The Department of Foreign Affairs said the mission will provide consular services to Filipinos residing and working in New Caledonia, 1,200 km east off Queensland, Australia. "Because there is no Philippine Foreign Service Post in New Caledonia, expatriate Filipinos in this territory have extra difficulty renewing their passports, especially with the biometric data capture procedure of the Machine Readable Passport," Consul General Eva Betita said in an article on the DFA website. Betita will lead the mission that will will travel to the New Caledonia capital of Nouméa where about 100 Filipinos work mostly in the hotel industry. The mission will then proceed to Goro where more than 850 Filipinos work in the nickel mining facility there. Other that passport and notarial services, the mission will also conduct Overseas Absentee Voters (OAV) registration for the Filipino expatriates in New Caledonia. "The period for the registration of OAVs will end on 31 August, and the Consulate wishes to ensure that the Filipinos in New Caledonia will be able to exercise their right to vote," Betita said. The Sydney consular mission is also an opportunity for the Consulate to get firsthand data on the current conditions of New Caledonia and ascertain the situation of Filipinos in this French territory. New Caledonia is the third largest island in the Pacific Ocean after Papua New Guinea and New Zealand, and falls under the consular jurisdiction of the Philippine Consulate General in Sydney. - GMANews.TV