Tanzania Immigration condemns arbitrary use of passports

IMMIGRATION Department yesterday issued strong warning against indiscriminate uses of travel documents for identification within the country.

Commissioner of Immigration, Passports and Citizenship, Gerald Kihinga, issued the warning in Dar es Salaam in an interview with Tanzania Standards Newspapers Limited owned media outlets.

Commissioner Kihinga decried increasing cases of lost passports under negligent circumstances, saying the documents’ replacement was unnecessary huge burden to the government.

“The passport is the travel document whose purposes are served only when the holder is travelling outside the country. But, unfortunately, people now use passports as identification credentials in various businesses within the country. This is wrong,” he affirmed.

He said investigations have revealed that majority people reporting the loss of their passports to the department had the tendency of carrying the documents with them wherever they went in their daily movements within the country.

“Just imagine, one reporting the loss of the passport and upon inquiries on the circumstances under which the document went missing, he claims to have learnt of the loss after arriving at Kariakoo from his Mbagala home,” exemplified Mr Kihinga.

Apart from using it as the travel document, the passport can be used as an ID only when the holder is outside the country, he said.

The commissioner discouraged the keeping of passports in car drawers for motorists and in handbags for women, saying the tendency increases the chances of losing it, saying should the department establish that the document was negligently lost, it will decline the request for replacement.

Mr Kihinga refuted reports that the department had run out of books to print the travel documents. “I can confidently assure the public that we have enough passport books, whatever is said outside there is mere hearsay,” he insisted.

The commissioner admitted that sometimes the department can take time to conduct due diligence on the document applicant, saying: “If they fail getting the documents within the time frame, they start speculating, sometimes claiming that we have run out of passport books.”

He told passport applicants to understand that though every Tanzanian had a right to acquire a passport, the department had prerogative mandate to offer or reject it to an individual, subject to some reasons, including criminal records and travel motives.

The commissioner also warned applicants against using middlemen in processing their passport applications.