KAMPALA, Uganda — The Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control (DCIC) within Uganda’s Ministry of Internal Affairs is confronting a significant backlog of unclaimed passports, with at least 42,000 documents now at risk of destruction. This issue persists despite a similar mass incineration of over 60,000 passports less than a year ago.
Simon Peter Mundeyi, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, confirmed the impending destruction. Mundeyi explained that despite repeated reminder messages sent to applicants, a substantial number of Ugandans fail to collect their passports.
Over 97% of these unclaimed passports are ordinary ones, each costing UGX 250,000. This implies that the DCIC previously destroyed passports valued at approximately UGX 1.55 billion, and an additional UGX 10.5 billion worth of passports are now slated for incineration.
“We call for applicants to pick these passports. We now have more than 42,000 unclaimed passports. These passports have continued to pile even after we destroyed 62,000. We appeal to Ugandans to come and pick their passports,” Mundeyi urged.
A primary reason for this abandonment is attributed to Ugandans applying for passports based on promises of jobs abroad from both genuine and fraudulent recruitment agencies.
Genuine agencies faced setbacks approximately a year ago when Saudi Arabian authorities temporarily suspended the recruitment of external workers to streamline processes and curb human trafficking.
Additionally, many overseas job opportunities were lost due to COVID-19 lockdowns, leading numerous applicants who had already applied for passports to abandon them.
Compounding the problem, numerous Ugandans have been defrauded by illegitimate recruitment schemes promising lucrative employment in countries like Israel, Ukraine, the UK, Canada, and the US.
Recently, it emerged that Christian Asiimwe, also known as Don Chris, allegedly swindled 350 Ugandans out of over UGX 1.4 billion with false job promises in Canada, the UK, and the US, operating through a fraudulent company named Skypins.
Patrick Onyango, the Kampala Metropolitan Police Spokesperson, and Simon Peter Mundeyi confirmed that a manhunt for Asiimwe is underway. However, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has since established that he fled the country in June via the Busia border.
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Similarly, Jackline Mbulateire and Andrew Sekimuli reportedly defrauded Ugandans of over UGX 940 million with job promises in Israel. Other victims have been swindled with offers for jobs in war-torn Ukraine and Russia.
In many instances, Ugandans rushed to apply for passports after being promised these appealing foreign jobs, only to abandon their documents once they realized they had been deceived by fraudsters.
Mundeyi noted that nearly all DCIC branches, including those in Kyambogo, Mbale, Mbarara, Jinja, Fort Portal, Hoima, Masindi, Arua, Masaka, and Lira, are currently overwhelmed with unclaimed passports.
