Only 52,000 have left SL in a month despite passport rush
Although 312,000 passports have been obtained in the last six months, only 52,000 have been used to go abroad last month, the Department of Immigration and Emigration says.
The majority of the passports used were to leave for migrant employment in Qatar, Dubai and Kuwait.
There is a massive congestion these days to get passports under the one day service with around 1,000 passports issued daily.
The Department of Immigration and Emigration is visited by 3,000 – 4,000 people every day to obtain passports and therefore, the daily limit of passports issued has needed to be increased as well.
It was earlier revealed by ‘Sri Lanka Mirror’ that the reasons for the breakdowns in the one-day and normal passport issuance service were due to insufficient server space as well as errors in the computer system and the printing department.
The errors had been prevalent for some time now, internal sources have revealed.