Passport queues will end in one month like other queues did – Susil

Leader of the House, Education Minister Dr. Susil Premajayantha told Parliament yesterday that just as the Government ended gas and fuel queues, it will end the passport queues within one month by taking steps for rapidly printing about 750,000 new passports.

The Minister said this while replying to a question raised by Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa regarding the delay in issuing passports.

Opposition Leader Premadasa said the issue of passports has become acute now. From March to December 2023, the Department of Immigration and Emigration has issued 83,000 passports per month. In 2024, an average of 60,000 passports has been issued so far per month.

He said attempts have been made to introduce an electronic passport instead of the regular ‘N’ category passport, but so far it has not been successful. Therefore, the process of providing this ordinary passport should be done efficiently. But it doesn’t happen now. People who come from far away to get passports are turned back. It is reported that there is only a reserve of 23,000 blank passports. The Department has not given orders to print enough passports. Due to this delay, the Government incurs a monthly loss of Rs.1100 million. “Please give a quick solution to this passport crisis,” he said.

MP Rauff Hakeem said that another problem that came with the passport issue is the queuing issue. Now there are huge queues of tourists. Those tourists are posting various things about the obstacles in entering this country, through social media. It is a great insult to our country. The Public Finance Committee gave a report regarding the Immigration and Emigration Department.

“Those days I was told there has been a big fraud in this matter and requested the authorities to refer this issue to the CID for investigation. The decision given by the Supreme Court has not yet been implemented. The old e-visa system is a good system implemented by Mobitel.

“But it is still delayed without implementing it. The Public Security Minister should be responsible for this issue. We have shown that there was a big fraud and even the Supreme Court has given an interim order. The interim order has not yet been implemented and they are deliberately trying to implement the contract they gave ‘fraudulently’.”

Minister Premajayantha said, “The e-passport system was introduced due to a delay in providing these normal passports. But due to the technical problem it was delayed. Meanwhile, this problem has arisen today due to lack of a sufficient reserve of passports that are not e-passports. We apologize for this.

“The Department must have made a correct calculation in this regard. But it has not been done. This was also discussed in the Cabinet too. It has now been decided to print at least 750,000 new passports. It also takes some time for printing. Therefore, after about another month, we hope passports will be issued in the normal way.”

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