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Confused Ugandan government runs out of passports
by Joseph Earnest June 16, 2017
Newscast Media KAMPALA—Ugandans hoping to travel abroad have been left stranded after the country’s Ministry of Internal Affairs ran out of stock for ordinary passports. The problem is expected to last for at least one month.
Fred Mwesiga, is the father to Jacob Mwesiga who is seeking treatment abroad, after he was attacked and beaten by thugs. Now the lower part of his body is paralyzed. He is also stranded and is desperate for a passport for his son. The longer it takes for him to get one, the higher the risk of his son losing his life. "I need to be assisted, they should help us because this passport issue has affected me a lot," Fred Mwesiga said. He wants his son to get treatment and go to school like other children.
However, officials at the Ministry of Internal Affairs do not see Mwesiga's case as urgent. They have run out of passports and the remaining few are to be issued to emergency cases only or to students traveling abroad for studies.
In the absence of passports the few available are reserved for the sick people going for surgery abroad. The commissioner for Passport Control Nicholas Ongodia told Deutsche Welle that demand was high hence straining the meager resources. "We have been issuing about 700 passports per day, we had a spike of applications caused by labor exports to the Middle East," Ongodia said.
Uganda prints its passports in the United Kingdom. According to a ministry official who did not want to be named, Uganda has unpaid arrears. This has forced the printers to hold the productions of new passports. Add Comments>>
Source: Deutsche Welle
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