Immigration to destroy 60,000 uncollected 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:
- Mr Simon Mundeyi, the Internal Affairs ministry spokesperson, explained that the uncollected passports keep on piling and they have since run out of space.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs is set to destroy more than 60,000 uncollected passports at the Kyambogo centre if the owners do not come for them by the end of the month.
Mr Simon Mundeyi, the Internal Affairs ministry spokesperson, explained that the uncollected passports keep on piling and they have since run out of space.
“We are, therefore, planning to destroy these passports next month [August] as they have been in storage for years, from 2018 to date,” he said.
According to the Directorate of Citizenships and Immigration Control (DCIC), most of the uncollected passports belong to maids, drivers, and security guards seeking employment in the Middle East.
This publication has learned that some of the uncollected passports were abandoned at various embassies.
Mr Mundeyi further stated that the predicament has been worsened by an additional 10,400 passports which were abandoned by the labour export companies and embassies.
According to the Internal Affairs Ministry, the pileup is due to applicants not being able to receive messages, asking them to collect their passports.
“When the passport is ready, messages are sent to the applicants to collect them. However, their phones are often off, and the messages bounce. We have tried contacting them using our toll-free lines, but nothing has yielded results,” Mr Mundeyi explained.
“Sometimes the contact numbers in their system belong to the managers of companies who have lost touch with the maids,” he added.
Early last month, Mr Mundeyi claimed to have received more than 9,000 passports from labour export companies.
“The Chinese embassy also returned 300 passports that were abandoned at the Chinese embassy in Kampala, and about 100 passports from the Saudi Arabian embassy. These Ugandans applied for visas and never collected them, even though the visas were paid for and granted,” he said.
Passports allow for exit from and re-entry into a country and also enable citizens to travel in a foreign country in line with visa requirements.
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Uganda issues three types of passports; ordinary, official, and diplomatic, with light blue for ordinary, green for official, and red for diplomatic passports. The ministry said all the uncollected travel documents fall under the ordinary category.
