Kampala, Uganda | By Michael Wandati | The Ugandan Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control (DCIC) is currently facing a significant storage challenge due to a pressing backlog of uncollected passports.
Spread across five centers in Kampala, Jinja, Gulu, Mbarara, and Mbale, more than 50,000 passports dating back to 2018 remain untouched.
Simon Mudenyi, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, has voiced serious apprehension regarding the situation. The overwhelming number of unclaimed passports not only imposes a strain on storage facilities but also poses a significant obstacle to future processing endeavors.
A major challenge exacerbating the problem is the communication barrier. Immigration authorities have struggled to reach out to passport holders due to unreachable phone numbers and undelivered messages. This predicament has been further compounded by an additional 2,000 unclaimed passports from the year 2024 alone.
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In an effort to tackle the backlog and streamline the processing of new applications, the public is earnestly urged to promptly collect their passports.
Mudenyi has stressed that the process for claiming passports is straightforward and implored passport holders to step forward and retrieve their documents.
The Directorate of Immigration is actively engaged in enhancing communication channels to facilitate the retrieval of unclaimed passports. However, immediate action is imperative to alleviate the strain on immigration resources and prevent further exacerbation of the situation.
