DILI, 13 october 2023 (TATOLI) – Patients in need of intensive medical care abroad and their companions, students abroad with passports about to expire, and athletes involved in international competitions are among the priority groups to receive passports from among the 700 passport books that have recently arrived in the country.
The Director General of Notaries and Civil Registrars at the Ministry of Justice, João Borges, said that the new model of electronic passport, received on october 6, complies with the requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organization. This means that the passport complies with international requirements for its bearer to travel between different countries.
Borges said that in the case of patients who needed intensive care abroad, the Ministry of Justice, in collaboration with the Guido Valadares National Hospital (HNGV), has already issued 40 passports for these patients.
It is expected that, in the very near future, 100 more patients will obtain passports to be transferred to foreign hospitals, mainly Indonesian ones. In this regard, the Clinical Director of the HNGV, Marcelino Correia, had recently warned that 140 patients needed to be treated abroad.
It should be remembered that, following a disagreement over the price of each passport booklet between the companies contracted to issue the documents and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the 8th government, the production of passport booklets was suspended. This resulted in major problems not only for those who wanted to leave the country, but also for scholarship students, athletes, and, above all, patients who require urgent treatment abroad.
The current government has allocated US$970,000 for the rapid printing of 16,000 passport books and directed the Minister of Justice, together with a team, to go to Finland to check that the passport model met the requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organization. Of those 16,000, 700 have now arrived, and it is hoped that the rest will arrive soon.
Journalist: Camilio de Sousa
Editor: Filomeno Martins
