38 240 travel documents issued by Home Affairs

MBABANE – A total of 38 240 travel documents were issued by the end of this reporting period under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

From this mentioned figure, a bigger portion of 21 379 travel documents were issued in Mbabane Service Centre, followed by 5 858 issued at Manzini Service Centre. The lowest figure of 85 travel documents was recorded at the Siphofaneni Service Centre. The ministry’s annual performance report tabled in Parliament recently also revealed that there were a lot of travel documents that have been printed and just awaiting collection by applicants from the various service centres, which are strategically located around the country.

Notably is that international passports were issued once per month during the period under reporting, while ordinary passports are only issued at the Mbabane headquarters. It has been reported that the number of passports applications increased quarterly, with the home affairs department issuing 1 897 during the first quarter, with the figure increasing to 2 288 during the second quarter before the number finally increased to 2 649 in the last quarter.

Diplomatic passports, which were also issued per month in the period under reporting, are the type issued by the department to a reserved class of applicants. The report highlighted that 327 diplomatic passports were issued during this period. A total of 780 Service passports, which are reserved for only senior government officials travelling on official duty, were issued from April to December 2023.

Further revealed in the report is the issuance of emergency passports and travel documents. This is a one-way document issued under a number of circumstances. This document can be issued to foreigners who have misplaced their passports while in the country. It can also be given to children, both to foreigners while in the country and also to refugees whose status has ceased and are being voluntarily repatriated back home.

These passports are also reserved for emaSwati who are very sick and need urgent medical attention outside the country. They can be issued to foreigners wishing to renew their passports in their Embassies outside the country where such documents are accepted.

These passports were issued to people from countries like Zimbabwe, South Africa, Sudan, DR Congo, Mozambique, Angola, Cameroon and Burundi, totalling twenty (20). In the first quarter, nine were issued while seven were printed for the second and third quarters respectively.

In the visa section, 2007 were issued by the department in the year under reporting. The department also issued different types of temporary residence permits to migrants according to applications forwarded. During this reporting period, there were 12 838 temporal resident permits issued and 247 declined. It must be stated that the Advisory Board was able to preside over 132 appeal cases, approved 28, and declined 114.

Furthermore, the department also processed application requests for citizenship through the Citizenship Board. During the period under review, the department worked on 115 applications for citizenship, approved 30, issued 36 certificates, deferred 19, and declined 29 applications.