Thousands frustrated due to unending delay in acquiring passports

Thousands of Passports are said to be unaccounted for at the Yaounde Immigration Centre due to high-level Corruption.

Mimi Mefo Info gathered that applicants for international passports have for several months now been left utterly frustrated by the Yaounde Immigration centre, as their passports haven’t or can’t even be accounted for.

This is coming amidst a general cry from passport applicants of the continuous rise in cost of producing an international passport in Cameroon.

According to most Cameroonians, the constant increase in the cost of producing an international passport may have been caused by the most recent update by the USA concerning the Diversity Visa Lottery (DV lottery) which has added having an international passport as a major factor for eligibility.

One of the applicants for a passport at the Yaounde Immigration centre expressed her dissatisfaction with the authorities after she had produced her passport almost a year ago but till date, she is yet to receive the document and has not even been told when it will be ready.

“It is one year now since I submitted documents for my passport at the immigration centre in Yaounde” she revealed.

“we were told to come back after one month to collect the passport but yet till now nothing has been done” she lamented.

The displeased applicant equally revealed that close to 2 million passport forms alongside with the fee (75,000FCFA – about 115 Euros) have been received by the immigration office and simply dropped without major processing. This has been intentionally done according to her, so as to give precedence to production express passports by mercenaries who work in compliance with the centre to collect exorbitant amounts from desperate individuals so as to produce them passports within the shortest timeframe possible.

The persons who receive these express passports are told that they are legit whereas they simply are not.

Many who have tried travelling with such passports have been held back at the airport by officials, saying the passports are fake, as there has been no official issuing of passports for this past year.

Kamga who resides in Yaoinde has also been another victim. He has been waiting for his passport to be produced for almost a year and “there seems to be no hope”, he tells Mimi Mefo Info.

“Can you ask the passport Service of Cameroon to explain to Cameroonians why a simple passport will take up to 7 months and still cannot be produced? People losing their jobs in the diaspora, jobs they could not get in their own country. Why can the Cameroon politicians be so heartless? Please shout it out so they should be put to shame. This is unbelievable. With all the woods they sell they complain about lack of booklets. It’s a shame. Some people get to regret why they were born in this country. Its aching and hurts, ” Kamga narrated in frustration.

Many have had to pay for the express service which cost 150.000 FCFA. But has not salvaged the situation as they may end up paying additional fees to retrieve their documents.

“The delegation of National Security has finally turned this passport issue into their private business,” Kamga added

Thousands of Cameroonians have been left stranded by such gimmicks ongoing at the immigration office, as many whom even after dishing out these huge sums for the express passports still end up not getting them.

(C) Mimi Mefo Info