The Ministry of Internal Affairs says Ugandans whose national IDs expired can now apply and receive their passports.
Simon Mundeyi, the spokesperson at the Ministry of Internal Affairs said on Monday that they got many questions on Ugandans who have expired National IDs and their ability to apply for Passports.
“If you lost your national ID, come with your national identification number(NIN) if you have it and you will be able to process the passport. You don’t need to have your national ID copy,” Mundeyi said.
A large number of Ugandan national IDs expiring this year since most of them were issued in 2014 and this has raised a big concern for many Ugandans who want to apply for passports.
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, they have coordinated with NIRA to ensure that despite the upcoming exercise for obtaining new national IDs, the national identification numbers will remain unchanged.
Mundeyi clarified that as a result, Ugandans with expired passports will be able to proceed with obtaining their new travel documents even without possessing physical national IDs, as long as they can provide their NINs.
“You don’t necessarily require your physical national ID. Simply input your NIN in the application form.”
In a concerning revelation, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has disclosed that it is currently grappling with the issue of 50,000 uncollected passports.
According to Ministry spokesperson Simon Mundeyi, these unclaimed documents trace back as far as 2019, when they were processed and printed. Mundeyi highlighted the urgency of the situation, noting that just within the first four months of this year, approximately 2000 passports remain uncollected despite being applied for during this period.
Mundeyi elaborated on the challenges posed by this backlog, stating, “Since we receive new applicants every day, having such a substantial number of unclaimed passports presents a significant storage challenge for our facilities.”
Furthermore, Mundeyi mentioned that attempts to notify the passport owners have been made, but some individuals have been unreachable. “In certain rare instances, despite notifications being sent out for passport collection, recipients’ phones are either switched off or lack network coverage. Consequently, messages bounce back undelivered, exacerbating the issue,” he explained.
The Ministry spokesperson shed light on a particularly noteworthy trend among the uncollected passports, stating, “A considerable portion of these unclaimed passports belong to individuals, particularly girls, who were intended for employment in the Middle East. However, due to the downturn in business, many lost interest in these documents upon returning to their villages.”
The Ministry is urging individuals who have applied for passports to promptly collect their documents to avoid exacerbating the storage issue and ensure the efficient functioning of passport issuance services.
