Explaining Penury:

Passports Seekers Be Patient, Beware of Conmen – DGSN Warns

-Says shortage of passport booklets is due to a change of the foreign company charged with the produces and supplies the booklets.

By Mercy Neba in Yaounde

The Director of Frontier Police (Emi-Immigration) has reassured public opinion in Cameroon and beyond that there has been no suspension of the process of production and delivery of passports to citizens in need, only slight dysfunctionalities that should be corrected in no distant future.

                Commissioner Jean Louis Messi says the production of passports would begin again anytime soon at the headquarters of the Emi-Imigration department of the Police in Yaounde. He was speaking in an interview with state broadcaster, crtv television on Sunday.

                The explanation by the Director of Frontier Police is aimed to debunk claims by some members of the public that passports production has been suspended in the country due to accrued debts owed by the state to the British company that supplies the precious booklets.

                It was also aimed to reassure the public that the production process would begin again sooner than later, and that persons demanding passports will get them in due time and at no extra cost.

                Commissioner Jean Louis Messi however noted that during the period of penury his services still continued issuing passports to some particular groups of people including notably the sick needing to be evacuated; students studying abroad; government agents going on mission etc.

                He explained that the government of Cameroon has been in partnership for 40 years with a British company that produces and supplies passport booklets to Cameroon. But it so happened that around the mid 2019 the British company stopped respecting its bargain.

                “So we had no option than to look for a new partner….But I can assure you that by 10 January 2020 we had gotten the nod of a new company to start furnishing us passport booklets again,” explained Commissioner Messi, who says the police treats issues of passports production with due diligence and that production will resume sooner than later.

                He advised persons demanding passports to be patient and to avoid falling prey to conmen and racketeers, who are all over the place extorting huge sums (at times upwards of 300.000cfa) from unsuspecting persons all in the name of procuring ‘emergency passports’ for them.