Africa-Press – Uganda. Passport applicants have been enduring long queues at the collection centres in Kampala after the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control (DCIC) sent messages to them before the documents were ready.
Thousands of passport applicants have in the past few days been lining up at the Kyambogo collection centre in Nakawa Division and waited for hours but majority were not served.
The director of DCIC, Maj Gen Apollo Kasiita-Gowa, said they had experienced a technical glitch that affected their operations and pleaded with the members of the public for patience.
“In the past few days, the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control has experienced a technical glitch that led to a high number of clients seeking to collect their ready passports from our Kyambogo Passports Collection Centre at the same time,” Maj Gen Kasiita-Gowa said in a statement yesterday.
The number of Ugandans seeking passports to go abroad for labour has shot up in just a few years, making it difficult for the immigration officials to serve them in time.
In 2017, around 60,000 passports were issued annually in the country, but the number has more than doubled.
Several applicants, who had been notified by the Immigration directorate to pick their passports found long queues and many left the area without getting the documents.
Maj Gen Kasiita-Gowa said the Covid-19 pandemic has also affected their operations, leading to delays.
“Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we may not be able to issue passports to every applicant at the same time. We call upon the applicants to exercise patience whenever asked to wait, or come on another pre-arranged day,” he said.
Immigration, like other government agencies, was instructed to have half the number of workers to enable social distancing to minimise the spread of Covid-19.
Maj Gen Kasiita-Gowa said they are clearing the backlog.
However, the challenges at DCIC go beyond the pandemic.
Since the beginning of the month, they have been giving different reasons for the delay to deliver services.
On December 9, they said the breakdown of their system at Kyambogo was due to a damaged fibre optic cable at Nakawa that made it difficult to transmit details from their headquarters. They later attributed it to a breakdown of connection with Uganda Revenue Authority.
On December 18, their Visa portal was down for maintenance and the visitors couldn’t apply for visas online.
Many Ugandans have been applying for the electronic passports before the expiry time on January 30, 2022.
For More News And Analysis About Uganda Follow Africa-Press
