The Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control (DCIC) under Ministry of Internal Affairs is preparing to destroy over 42,000 unclaimed passports, valued at approximately Shs10.5 billion.
According to Simon Peter Mundeyi, the Ministry’s spokesperson, this is not the first time such drastic action has been taken.
He revealed that more than 62,000 passports were destroyed less than a year ago after remaining uncollected for an extended period. That batch alone was worth Shs15.5 billion.
“Despite repeated SMS reminders, many Ugandans do not return to collect their passports,” Mundeyi said.
“We are now sitting on another 42,000 unclaimed passports and are left with no choice but to dispose of them. We urge applicants to come and collect them before we proceed with destruction.”
The majority of the unclaimed documents—over 97%—are ordinary passports, each costing Shs250,000.
Mundeyi further noted that many of the applicants are individuals who were lured by promises of jobs abroad, often by both legitimate and fraudulent recruitment agencies. A significant drop in follow-through began last year after Saudi Arabia temporarily suspended labour recruitment from Uganda in a bid to combat human trafficking and irregularities in the sector.
The DCIC continues to appeal to citizens to collect their documents promptly to avoid further financial loss and to ease the growing backlog in passport processing and storage.
