By Mercy Matonga:
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed receiving, reports that some Malawian passports are being rejected for visa application to some countries.
Malawi News understands that the newly-installed passport printing system appears to be way short of standards with other countries rejecting visa applications for travellers using the new passports.
Government procured the new passport system amid pressure after going months without issuing passports.
This followed a string of developments including the ending of a contractual agreement with the previous printer.
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Now, the new passport barcodes are failing to read when scanned in some international immigration databases forcing those countries to reject travel requests by holders.
Those countries include European ones especially those in the Schengen zone.
Sources at the Norwegian Visa Centre in Lilongwe told Malawi News that since March this year, the centre has been facing challenges scanning the new passports and has referred all the cases to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“We can’t say much about this because we feel it is something that can be dealt with by the government, but yes, since March, we have been facing challenges with the new passports,” said an employee at the centre.
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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed receiving complaints on the matter but said it could not immediately ascertain how widespread the problem is.
In a written response, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Charles Nkhalamba said the ministry has subsequently forwarded all complaints regarding the issue to relevant authorities.
“We are not sure of the exact number but we have received a number of them,” Nkhalamba said.
He said he could not respond as to what is being done to resolve the issue and referred us to Ministry of Homeland Security.
Principal Secretary for Homeland Security Steven Kayuni said he was not in a position to provide a response.
Minister of Information Moses Kunkuyu said the government was not aware of the incidents and that the Department of Immigration insists the allegations are untrue.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs always informs the President of any issues concerning Malawi happening anywhere across the globe regardless of the nature of the issues and the responsible ministry in Malawi. By doing so, the ministry does not assume the roles of the responsible ministry. In this spirit, the allegation that some countries’ border control systems are failing to read some of our passports was made known to the President.
“No recommendations were made as this can only come from the responsible ministry (Homeland Security) after confirming the allegation,” said Kunkuyu.
He added that the department is still using the same passport booklets that were procured long time ago and the security features that border control systems read have not changed.
“This means that a system that could read a passport issued before the hacking incident occurred should still be able to read a passport issued today,” he said.
