Kahinda Otafiire, the Minister of Internal Affairs
The Government Assurances Committee of Parliament has asked the Ministry of Internal Affairs to provide a list of 699 Ugandans holding diplomatic passports.
The committee’s probe follows concerns of Ugandans holding diplomatic and official passports obtained through irregular channels.
According to the Committee chairperson Betty Nambooze, several Ugandans are illegally in possession of red diplomatic passports. She cited local government councilors and ordinary citizens.
The committee was on Tuesday meeting Ministry of Internal Affairs officials led by the Minister Kahinda Otafiire. They were appearing before the committee to answer queries on assurances raised on the floor of Parliament.
According to Immigration, diplomatic passports are possessed by individuals like Ministers and official passports which are green in colour are held by high ranking Government officials, while the black and blue passports are held by ordinary citizens.
Nambooze also questioned if individuals who get the special passports return them when they retire or resign. However, Otafiire said it is an option if the person wants to retain or return the passport.
Otafiire said the diplomatic passports are issued for the protection of people who enjoy diplomatic status like Ministers, senior religious leaders, Members of the Diplomatic service, senior judicial officers among others.
Joseph Ssewungu, the Vice-Chairperson of the committee and Kalungu West MP tasked the Ministry of Internal Affairs to avail a list of all Ugandans holding the diplomatic passports in 7 days. He says some people are misusing the passports.
The committee also tasked the Ministry to explain why non-Ugandans are holding Ugandan Passports. Immigration stated that so several persons have been arrested for this especially West Africans.
The MPs also tasked the officials why the Government has not set up a separate passport processing office for labour export companies to reduce the congestion and chaos at the immigration.
However, Otafiire told the MPs that Labour export companies will no longer process passports for migrant workers.
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