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Internal Affairs stuck with over 10,000 new passports
People queue outside the Internal Affairs headquarters on Port Bell Road to register for new passports on April 11, 2023. PHOTO /ISAAC KASAMANI
What you need to know:
- Mr Simon Peter Mundeyi, the Internal Affairs spokesperson, told the Daily Monitor in an interview yesterday that they have tried to contact the owners using details they provided during application in vain.
The Directorate of Immigration and Citizenship Control under the Ministry of Internal Affairs has revealed that they are stuck with more than 10,000 new e-passport at the collection centre in Kyambogo.
Mr Simon Peter Mundeyi, the Internal Affairs spokesperson, told the Daily Monitor in an interview yesterday that they have tried to contact the owners using details they provided during application in vain.
“I want to ask Ugandans who suffered looking for money, applied, paid and scheduled appointments to come and pick their passports. We have made efforts to resend messages to them to ensure they come and pick them, relieve us and create space but many remain piled up at our office. We have nowhere to keep passports because they are so many,” he said.
Mr Mundeyi said they decided to increase the number of work stations to address the long queues.
The spokesperson urged Ugandans to desist from using third parties.
“If you see anyone who wants to help you get a passport, run,” Mr Mundeyi said
“We are opening a call centre at the Ministry of Internal Affairs for anyone who would like to find out about our services. This number will be provided in a week,” he said.
On April 4, Uganda outlawed the old passports and encouraged everyone who has travel plans to apply for the new East African passports to avoid inconvenience.
The government launched the East African e-passport in 2018. A two-year transitional period followed to allow the phasing out of East African and international machine-readable passports.
Costs
The cost of an ordinary international East African e-passport is Shs250,000, for a service international East African e-passport Shs400,000 and for an international East African diplomatic passport Shs500,000.
