Over 70,000 unclaimed passports at risk of being destroyed
12,580 passports have been issued as far back as 2018, according to ministry spokesperson Simon Peter Mundeyi.
Internal Affairs Spokesperson, Simon Mundeyi, indicates that 158,000 unclaimed passports were destroyed, over 12,000 are still in stores and 60,000 were returned by labour export companies. This was revealed during weekly police briefings held in police headquarters in Naguru. (Photo by Alfred Ochwo)
Jeff Andrew Lule
Journalist @New Vision
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The internal affairs ministry is facing a backlog of 72,580 unclaimed passports stored at Kyambogo in Kampala city.
Among these, 12,580 passports have been issued as far back as 2018, according to ministry spokesperson Simon Peter Mundeyi.
“We have called out the applicants, we have sent messages, we have talked about these passports. Of course, we cannot publish these passports because of the privacy law prevailing,” he noted.
Addressing journalists at the weekly joint security briefing at the Police headquarters in Naguru, Kampala today (March 10, 2025), Mundeyi emphasized that they have been reaching out to the applicants to pick them up, but there has been no response.
He warned that if the owners do not respond to the request to collect them, they will be destroyed.
60,000 returned by labour export companies
Mundeyi highlighted that another set of 60,000 passports was returned by the labour export companies due to their inability to find employment for the applicants in the Arab countries.
“They applied for them and handed them over to labour export companies, but these companies have since failed to process travel for them. We urge these people who fall in this category to come and check on us because many are still valid till 2030 and 2031,” he said.
“We call upon all Ugandans who were not able to travel abroad to come check on their passports. We return it to you freely because it is your property,” he said.
Mundeyi cautioned that if individuals do not collect their passports within a designated timeframe, they will be compelled to destroy them too.
158,000 passports destroyed
He went on to reveal that, recently, a staggering 158,000 passports that had remained uncollected for an extended period were destroyed.
He noted that numerous Ugandans had applied for passports but had not retrieved them for several years.
“So, what do we do? We have been calling out, we don’t have where to keep these passports, so we went ahead and destroyed the 158,000 passports,” he added.