The Ministry of internal affairs is stuck with over 25,000 new passports booklets pending collection by the applicants at the different regional centers.
This was revealed by the ministry’s spokesman Simon Peter Mundeyi while addressing journalist in the security joint weekly press briefing held on February 13, 2023 at Naguru Police Headquarters.
Mundeyi said that with the 3000 passports processed and printed every day, the Directorate of Immigration and Citizenship Control is currently stuck after owners failed to pick their booklets which have accumulated at all the passport centers country wide and this gives the Directorate a challenge of storage space.
“There is another accumulation of passport booklets totaling to over 25,000. Many of these applied, paid for them, we processed them but the owners are not picking them yet we are running short of storage space at our centers. ,” Mundeyi said.
He adds: “ That most of the passports were applied for in 2018, 2019 and 2020 but noted that some of the applicants put in wrong information including phone contacts and were not able to receive notifications to pick their booklets.“
“The problem could also be that the applicants haven’t received messages calling them to pick their booklets because they used brokers who intentionally put wrong numbers as a way to continue fleecing the applicants of money. They (brokers) know that if they put wrong numbers, the applicants won’t receive messages and will become desperate and definitely look for them.”
Mundeyi asked that anyone who applied for a passport and hasn’t yet received it should contact the ministry via its social media platforms for clarification or can reach out on the different centers. He also warned people from using brokers who he said are partly to blame on those who to pick their passports because sometimes they give wrong mobile phone numbers such that the applicant doesn’t get information directly with an aim of continuing to get money from him or her.
The cost of an ordinary East African e-passport for in Uganda is at Shs250, 000 and shs400, 000 for the express passport and shs500,000 for a diplomatic passport.
The passport takes 14 working days from the day of application to issuance.
By George Bukenya