The Ministry of Internal Affairs recently destroyed 158,000 unclaimed passports at its Kyambogo Center due to storage constraints.
Immigration spokesperson Simon Mundeyi explained that despite applicants having paid for and been notified about their passports, many failed to collect them. Repeated attempts to contact them were unsuccessful, leading to the decision to clear the backlog.
The unclaimed passports, primarily the older booklet versions, had remained uncollected for years. Given that an ordinary Ugandan passport costs Shs250,000, this destruction translates to a financial loss of Shs39.5 billion.
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Most of the uncollected passports reportedly belonged to job seekers, including housemaids, drivers, and security guards intending to work in the Middle East. Additionally, 60,000 passports were returned by labor export companies that failed to place workers abroad.
Mr. Mundeyi warned that another 12,580 passports risk destruction if their owners do not collect them within six months. He urged all applicants to follow up and retrieve their passports before it’s too late.
A major challenge, according to Internal Affairs, is that many applicants fail to receive collection notifications due to switched-off phones or undelivered messages.
This is not the first instance of mass passport destruction. In July 2023, 60,000 uncollected passports were also destroyed.
Uganda issues three types of passports: ordinary, official, and diplomatic (red). The recent batch of destroyed passports fell under the ordinary category. The country transitioned to polycarbonate e-passports in 2023, replacing the older paper-based versions.
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