Low turn out of passport applicants worrying - Sarpong

Wenchi (B/A), Jan.15, GNA - Mr Augustus Offei Sarpong, Wenchi Municipal Immigration Officer on Thursday expressed concern about the low turn-out of passport applicants in the municipality. He attributed the situation to lack of proper education on the need for every Ghanaian to obtain the national passport, as well as the delays in the processing of passport applications by the authorities. Mr Sarpong told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview in Wenchi that at the end of 2008 only 300 persons in the municipality had applied for passports and stressed the need for every citizen to possess the document despite age, tribe or profession.

He called for an intensification of awareness creation among the general public to promote their interest and to help curb the illegal acquisition of travelling documents.

Mr Sarpong noted that ineffective communication between the passport offices and the Ghana Immigration Service had led to some applicants securing more than one passport. "Some people apply to both the Passport Office and the Immigration Service and because of poor communication between them their names appear twice in the register and cannot be detected for one to be cancelled to avoid the issuance of two passports to the same person," he said.

As a result, about 18 issued passports have been abandoned at the municipal office since 2007 and we are yet to go on air to announce the names of owners, he said. A cross-section of people interviewed by the GNA in Wenchi complained about the inability of the Immigration Service to let the public know their offices and where to collect their passports when ready.

Obed Tachi Mensah, a student, said he applied to the Immigration Service office in Sunyani for a passport but was instructed to collect it in Wenchi, his place of birth. "It took about three months for my passport to be traced", he said and appealed to the authorities to make the public aware of changes in the application for the document.