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‘750,000 passports to be brought in stages’

‘750,000 passports to be brought in stages’

23 Oct 2024 | BY Apsara Rodrigo



The Government announced that they would be bringing 750,000 new passports in stages amidst complaints of passport shortages.

“There is no shortage of passports, so don’t panic,” Cabinet Spokesperson and Public Security Minister Vijitha Herath, under whose purview the Immigration and Emigration Department comes, told the media yesterday (22). 

“We will be bringing 750,000 new passports in stages,” he said. Meanwhile, Herath also said that 7,500 new passports will be arriving on 26 October and that another batch of approximately 42,000 new passports will be arriving in November. 

“There will be some crowding for a day or two, however, when the new passports come, everything will go back to the old way,” Herath claimed. “We have solved the visa issue now, and after 27 to 28 days, the lack of passports will also be solved,” he noted.

These complaints follow long queues at the Department after the authorities ran out of new passports to issue to citizens. Announcements were made that a new electronic passport will be available to Sri Lankan passport holders from January of next year (2025).

Former Minister of Public Security Tiran Alles said that the long passport queues were not a result of a lack of passports but were caused by certain individuals with over a hundred subscriber identity module cards manipulating the online appointment system by booking appointments and later selling the slots for high prices. When the online system was taken down due to these activities, Alles alleged that individuals made use of the new token system by selling tokens for high prices. It was reported that those who booked online, had to wait for a token once the online system was disbanded. Hence, people had to wait in queues for hours in order to obtain their passport. 



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