Passport shortage hits labour export agencies
The ordinary Uganda passport. PHOTO BY ABUBAKER LUBOWA
Kampala- Ugandans seeking passports to travel abroad may have to wait for some time as the country has run short of material to print the official travel document.
The most affected are youth seeking jobs abroad through the different labour export agencies that for the last one week have not been able to receive passports for their clients.
“The issue of passports not being available has disorganised [us] too much because we had clients who were set to [travel]this week knowing that their passports were supposed to be out already,” a director of one of the external labour recruiting company told Daily Monitor yesterday.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs spokesperson, Mr Jacob Siminyu, said: “I am still in a meeting. The only thing you can do is to send me an e-mail with questions, I will then provide the answers.”
By the time of filing this story, he had not yet responded to our e-mail.
The State Minister for Internal Affairs, Mr Obiga Kania, referred us to the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control, saying: “I have not yet been briefed about passport shortage.”
This newspaper learnt from a source within the department that they will be ready to print passports by the start of next week.
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak on behalf of the department, said only those passports for emergency travels such as sick people referred for urgent medical attention abroad can be printed at the moment.
The external labour recruitment agencies that we spoke to said they have hundreds of clients stranded because of the passports.
“Some of our clients have contracts signed and flights booked. It is going to be expensive to cancel and re-book the flights,” said a director of a company that exports domestic workers to the Middle East.
When this reporter visited the ministry premises yesterday, business was going on normally but the officials were mostly serving those applying for new passports, renewals and those with queries.
