DILI, 15 january 2023 (TATOLI) – Twenty thousand passport booklets arrived in the country on monday, which is why the Ministry of Justice’s General Directorate of Registries and Notaries (GDRN) is expected to resume the process of issuing passport booklets in the near future.
“The Finnish company Thales has now sent 20,000 passport booklets,” said the Minister of Justice, Amândio de Sá Benevides, after a meeting of the Council of Ministers in Dili.
According to Benevides, the ministry plans to launch Timor-Leste’s Online Passport Application System later this week to prevent overcrowding at the passport office.
The GDRN and its municipal agencies are expected to issue up to 140 passport booklets a day.
Last month, the Ministry of Justice through the Directorate General of Notaries and Registration received 16,000 passport booklets to respond to the high demand of the citizens in the country.
However, the country has once again suspended the issuing of passports in January as the GDRN ran out of passport booklets.
According to a government source, at the beginning of 2023, the Ministry of Justice signed a contract for the production of around 73,000 passport books, which was not fulfilled due to procedural difficulties.
Journalist: José Belarmino De Sá
Editor: Filomeno Martins
