Immigration Minister David Burch has accused Britain of penalising Overseas Territories in its new passport procedures.

Since November 1, any Overseas Territories citizens applying for British citizen passports must apply to the UK Passport Service Centre at the British Embassy in Washington DC.

A Bermuda Department of Immigration spokesman explained the move last year as "part of a global initiative to streamline the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's passport operation to make it more cost effective, secure and sustainable".

The changes affect those applying for a British citizen passport, not for a British Overseas Territories citizen (Bermuda) passport.

It means Bermudians can no longer submit applications for UK passports to the Department of Immigration. They must now fill out an application and send it to Washington DC.

The move has not gone down well with Senator Burch who told the Senate on Monday: "The British had a plan last year to abolish the issuance of British passports in all Overseas Territories. It didn't seem to make a whole lot of sense to me, and I'm hoping common sense will prevail in the UK."

The Minister said: "The British lost about 5,000 passports so their solution was to penalise all the Overseas Territories.

"My solution would be to invite most Bermudians to surrender and buy a ten-year passport to be able to go to the UK."

Sen. Burch told the Senate: "We are a colony from an immigration point of view and the rate things are going, I'm going to die with us being a colony because that's the way things are going and how we like things here.

"People think being Bermudian is in fact a nationality. It isn't.

"Under the British Nationality Act we are British Overseas Territory citizens. That is the law that governs the issue of status and passports."