Government prevents embassies abroad from replacing passports

The Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control (DCIC) has revised its guidelines on replacing passports for Ugandans living in the diaspora.

Under the new guidelines, anyone who loses their passport must return to Uganda for processing and replacement.

Previously, Ugandans have applied for replacement passports at 38 different embassies around the world.

This implies that Ugandans residing in the diaspora will now have to incur additional travel expenses to return to Uganda and replace the passport.

According to Immigration, some Ugandans in the diaspora were allegedly in the habit of lying to immigration by telling them that their passports were lost and would be sold to criminals.

“Ugandans who lose their passports must return home. Passports were sold to scammers and used to commit crimes. In some of these countries, differentiating Africans would be difficult. They would sell them for $5,000 (18 million shillings). It was easy for them to obtain these passports,” Interior Ministry spokesperson Simon Mundeyi said yesterday in an interview with this publication.

“In working with these foreign governments, we resolved that anyone who claims to have lost a passport must return to their country for thorough investigations. “Many countries in Europe and Asia find it difficult to differentiate between black people and it is becoming easier for a black person from another country to circumvent the immigration system by using a Ugandan passport,” he added.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs estimated that about 781,400 Ugandans lived, in 2020, in other countries and the majority of them are migrant workers.

Applying for an ordinary passport book costs 250,000 shillings, service passports cost 400,000 shillings, while diplomatic passports cost 500,000 shillings. It costs 400,000 shillings to process ordinary express passports in three days.

Mundeyi said several countries have filed complaints against Uganda.

“Ugandans in the diaspora should not be expected to obtain new or replacement passports at the embassies of their respective countries of residence,” he said.

He explained that embassies can only be used to collect a passport whose data has been captured from home.

“However, those seeking renewal of expired passports do not need to travel back as they may be assisted by embassies as they would have presented an obsolete one,” he said.

The Home Office also warned foreigners not to be fooled by scammers who disguise themselves as immigration officials.

“Scammers posing as immigration officials are now targeting foreigners. They have falsified immigration IDs. They have been designed to defraud foreigners. They hide around the slaughterhouse and the old CE. They let them know when they come on a motorcycle. They threaten and sometimes arrest people,” Mundeyi said.

The ministry has also deported 82 illegal aliens from the United States, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mundeyi said the deportees had remained in the country illegally without bothering to renew their expired work and residence permits.