Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The Director General of Civil Registry and Immigration has urged the public to process their own identity documents and warned that any police officer caught handling documents on behalf of others will be arrested.
The warning follows reports that some polices have been involved processing identity documents for individuals.
Maj. Gen. Elia Costa, the Director General of Civil Registry, Nationality, Passport and Immigration, said the practice is a violation of the law and officers involved will face disciplinary action.
“If there are documents being sold outside, that is a violation, we know there are many brokers in everything in South Sudan here that is one of the things we are fighting at the immigration department,” he said, while speaking on the Eye Radio’s Dawn Program on Monday morning.
He also cautioned the public against being misled by brokers or police officers into using shortcuts to obtain documents.
“We call on the citizens to come and process their documents personally, come inside the office of immigration and start the process, don’t buy anything from outside, we have our office, this is also a responsibility of our citizens, this will not open the door for brokers to sell documents to people expensively, everyone should just come to the office.
“My directive also to the immigration officers is that our responsibility is to facilitate for citizens to obtain their documents legally, it has to be within the law, it should not be outside the law,” he said.
He said this would reduce the misuse of passports and nationality certificate cards.
According to Maj. Gen. Costa, acquiring nationality costs only 15,000 South Sudanese Pounds, with additional requirements bringing the total to less than 30,000 SSP.
Meanwhile, a passport costs 100 US dollars, or the equivalent in South Sudan Pounds based on the Central Bank’s exchange rate.
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