The Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion is mov­ing to boost its man­pow­er by hir­ing close to 100 of­fi­cers in the com­ing months.

A state­ment from the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty said the re­cruit­ment ex­er­cise start­ed week be­fore last for suit­ably qual­i­fied of­fi­cers for the post of Im­mi­gra­tion Of­fi­cer 1 from the with­in the Pub­lic Ser­vice.

The dead­line for sub­mis­sion of ap­pli­ca­tions to the Di­rec­tor of Per­son­nel Ad­min­is­tra­tion is Feb­ru­ary 8.

The re­lease said the in­take of new of­fi­cers will re­sult in the pro­mo­tion of some 73 of­fi­cers to the rank of Im­mi­gra­tion Of­fi­cers 11, 111 and IV. Va­can­cies in these po­si­tions have not been filled since 2006.

The ad­di­tion­al of­fi­cers will en­able the Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion to strength­en the in­ves­ti­ga­tion sec­tion, in­tel­li­gence unit, pass­port unit, ex­ten­sions and per­ma­nent res­i­dence sec­tions and the Doc­u­ment Ex­am­i­na­tion Lab­o­ra­to­ry.

The state­ment quot­ed Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er as say­ing the pass­port sec­tion will soon be able to han­dle a larg­er vol­ume of ap­pli­ca­tions for pass­ports in a more ex­pe­di­tious man­ner.

He said strength­en­ing these units will al­low the Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion to more ef­fec­tive­ly deal with il­le­gal im­mi­grants, hu­man traf­fick­ing and transna­tion­al crime and man­age­ment of the bor­ders.

"This in­take of the new of­fi­cers will help to in­crease the pres­ence of im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cers at air­ports and sea­ports to fa­cil­i­tate the speedy pro­cess­ing of ar­riv­ing pas­sen­gers," Warn­er added.

The Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion has start­ed an up­grade of the In­for­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy equip­ment at the Doc­u­men­ta­tion Lab­o­ra­to­ry, which will al­so in­clude the train­ing and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of Im­mi­gra­tion Of­fi­cers in foren­sic coun­ter­feit ex­am­i­na­tion.