LNP – Passport queues to end in a month: Immigration Dept.

Although the root cause of the prevailing passport queues is due to the mismanagement of the previous governments, the Department of Immigration and Emigration (DIE) will commit to clear all queues before Sinhala and Tamil New Year in April, an official said.

Attributing the mismanagement of previous regimes as the cause of the prevailing severe shortage of passports to the citizens of Sri Lanka, a senior DIE official told the Daily Mirror yesterday that all queues will be wiped off within a month.

The official said with the commencement of the 24-hour service probably by next week all staff at the DIE will commit to work day and night to cater to the public needs.

“It is the collective responsibility of everyone at the DIE being the competent authority to issue a passport and we will commit to do so, though the problem had been created by past politicians,” the officer said.

Stating the proposed 24-hour service with only the remaining staff at hand as a ‘very strenuous’ and difficult task the official said it is no match to the hardships the public had to undergo by being in queues for days.