BUJUMBURA March 30th (ABP) – The Commissioner General for Migration, Major General of Police Maurice Mbonimpa hosted on Monday, March 28, 2022 in Bujumbura (western Burundi), a press conference on the inventory of the availability of documents travel including passports.
Mr. Mbonimpa reminded the media that in recent days, inconveniences have arisen in the issuance of passports. He specified that the cause of this situation was the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2021 end-of-year celebrations in the country of Slovenia, where passports are ordered.
For that reason, he announced, there had been consequences linked to this situation of the non-availability of passports in Burundi, citing the impossibility of travel for those who were in need, including the sick, students and traders.
The Commissioner General for Migration said that the problem has now been solved. He explained that the General Commissariat for Migration received machines that can produce more than 1,000 passports per day, when previously the machines available to the Commissariat did not exceed 300 passports per day.
He did not forget to point out that to curb that problem, we ordered 50,000 passports this year, whereas previously we ordered between 15 and 20,000 passports per year.
Mr. Mbonimpa pointed out that 5 thousand passports are already available, and that we will try to distribute them according to the order of the applicants who have already paid. He indicated that the distribution will start with applicants from October 2021. He estimated that by the end of April, all pending applicants will have their travel documents.
He also recalled that the price of the passport is 235,000 BIF, that of the pass 30,000 BIF and the price of the CPGL card 18,000 BIF. At the same time, Mr. Mbonimpa invited the Burundian population to denounce the cases of commission agents who deceive people by fixing their prices for travel documents. He warned the commissioners of travel documents, stressing that whoever is caught will be punished in accordance with the law.
The Commissioner General for Migration also indicated that the withdrawal of the passport is personal, except for small children where it is their parents who make the withdrawal.
For students abroad, they can contact the ministry in charge of national education to come and make the withdrawal. The other categories who are abroad whose passports have expired are asked to go to the Burundian embassies of the countries where they are, to grant them papers allowing them to come to Burundi to collect the passports, he hammered.
According to Mr. Mbonimpa, every Burundian has the right to a passport. The documents required are the complete identity certificate, the residence certificate, the photocopy of the national identity card, for adults. For children, the birth certificate must also be included.