Uganda to open sixth passport centre abroad in Copenhagen; Ministry stuck with 50,000 passports

Uganda will on Monday open another passport centre abroad and it will be located in Copenhagen, the Danish capital, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has said.

“We are adding another passport centre to be launched on Monday, November 21,2022 at the Ugandan embassy in Copenhagen to serve our people in the Scandinavian countries including  Denmark and Sweden  as well as nearby centres,” the Internal Affairs spokesperson, Simon Mundeyi said.

He said other passport centres abroad in Pretoria South Africa, Ottawa, Canada, Washington DC in the US, London, UK and AbuDhabi(UAE) which were opened earlier are fully operational and Ugandans in those countries are urged to use their services.

Mundeyi explained that now that all passport applications are done online, the new passport centres abroad have therefore been situated in areas where there is a sizeable number of Ugandans either living, working or studying.

Stuck with over 50,000 passports

The Ministry of Internal Affairs spokesperson also noted that they are currently stuck with over 50,000 new passports which were printed but owners have not yet picked them.

Mundeyi said currently there is no backlog in terms of passport applications, noting that whoever comes in is processed immediately and those who apply for express passports are issued with a new booklet in only three days.

Explaining that they have put their house in order, the Ministry of Internal Affairs noted that because of clearing the backlog, they currently have few people applying for passports whereas many others are still not claimed by owners.

“We no longer have crowds at the ministry or any backlog. We have put our house in order with enough staff and booklets. Actually we have few people applying for passports right now. Our problem now is people not picking the passports and our staff sitting idle,”Mundeyi said.

“Many applied for passports, we sent them messages but didn’t respond. For that matter, we have over 50,000 passports applied for in this period and are ready at our collection centre in Kyambogo but not yet claimed. We have made them ready but people not coming to pick them.”

Mundeyi noted that they also have passports unclaimed for at their Mbarara and Mbale centres.

He added that there is also  another  batch of 10,000 passports which were not claimed by owners  between the months of January 2019 up to December 2021.

“We call everybody who has received messages to come and pick their passports.”