Govt stops embassies abroad from replacing passports
The Ministry of Internal Affairs spokesperson, Mr Simon Peter Mundeyi, displays the new electronic passports (left) and the ones phased out (right), at the ministry’s headquarters in Kampala on June 26, 2023. PHOTO/FRANK BAGUMA.
What you need to know:
- The Internal Affairs ministry has also warned foreigners against falling for tricks of fraudsters disguising themselves as Immigration staff.
The Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control (DCIC) has revised its guidelines on replacing passports for Ugandans living in the diaspora.
Under the new guidelines, whoever loses his or her passport must return to Uganda to have it processed and replaced.
Previously, Ugandans have been applying for passport replacement at 38 different embassies worldwide.
This implies that Ugandans residing in the diaspora will now have to incur additional travel expenses to return to Uganda for passport replacement.
According to Immigration, some Ugandans in the diaspora had allegedly made it a habit of lying to immigration that their passports got lost and would sell them to criminals.
“Ugandans losing passports must return home. The passports were being sold to fraudsters and they were used in crime. In some of these countries, differentiating Africans would be difficult. They would sell them at $5,000 (Shs18m). It was easy for them to get these passports,” Mr Simon Mundeyi, the Internal Affairs ministry spokesperson, said in an interview with this publication yesterday.
“Working with these foreign governments, we resolved that anybody who claims he has lost a passport must return home so that thorough investigations are done. Many countries in Europe and Asia find it difficult to differentiate blacks and it was becoming easy for a black person from another country to beat the immigration system using a Ugandan passport,” he added.
The Foreign Affairs ministry estimated that some 781,400 Ugandans were, as of the 2020, living in other countries and most of them are migrant workers.
Application for an ordinary passport booklet costs Shs250,000, the service passports are at Shs400,000, while diplomatic passports cost Shs500,000. It costs Shs400,000 to process express ordinary passports in three days.
Mr Mundeyi said several countries have lodged complaints against Uganda.
“Ugandans in the diaspora should not expect that they would acquire new passports or replacements at the embassies in their respective countries of residence,” he said.
He explained that embassies can only be used for collecting a passport whose details have been captured from home.
“However, those seeking renewal for expired passports do not need to travel back as they can be served by the embassies because they would have presented the outdated one,” he said.
The Internal Affairs ministry has also warned foreigners against falling for tricks of fraudsters disguising themselves as Immigration staff.
“Fraudsters posing as Immigration officers are now targeting foreigners. They have counterfeit Immigration IDS. They have been designed to defraud foreigners. They hide around the abattoir and former EC. They flag them when they come on motorcycles. They threaten and sometimes arrest people,” Mr Mundeyi said.
The ministry has also deported 82 illegal foreigners from America, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and DRC. Mr Mundeyi said the deportees had illegally stayed in the country without bothering to renew their expired work and resident permits.
