The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Passport Office has confiscated 379 Ghana Cards of non-Ghanaians over the last 10 months.
At a press conference in Accra yesterday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, said his outfit was aware that there were some foreigners trying to find their way to acquire Ghanaian passports.
He said the ministry would apply a “no nonsense approach” to apprehend any foreigner attempting to secure a Ghanaian passport illegally.
“We have outlined a number of enhanced security measures. I can confirm to you that we are rolling out a no-nonsense approach. Any foreigner who attempts to lay hands on our passports will be promptly apprehended and prosecuted.
“So far, we have rounded up 379 people who we believe are not Ghanaians. What surprises us is that even though during vetting by our officers, it was clear that they are not Ghanaians, they have managed to secure Ghana passports bearing Ghanaian names, names that clearly do not belong to them,” the minister added.
He, therefore, cautioned foreigners trying to illegally acquire the travel document to desist from such, as the MFA and the Passport Office were prepared to deal with anyone trying to test their resolve.
New security measures
Mr Ablakwa said that the passport office had also enhanced its security protocols with the introduction of a new policy to curtail multiplicity of applications by the same person.
“Going through the passport application data, we observed that there are some contacts that keep recurring. How can one number apply for 174 passports?
Even if you are the only one with a large family, are you sure that all 174 don't have mobile phones and you have to apply for them?” he queried.
Other numbers also applied 170, 160 times, and 123 times. We have the data of all these phone numbers, and we have submitted their details to National Security for further investigations,” the minister added.
He said those numbers had also been blocked in the system, while registration by an individual had been limited to five.
“The new policy is that you cannot apply with the same phone number for more than five applications,” Mr Ablakwa said.
He said all passport application centres had also been integrated using modern technology, including artificial intelligence, “so you cannot move from one region to the other to attempt to beat the system.”
New passport fee
The minister further said that officially, parliament had approved the new passport application fee of GH¢350.00, a reduction by 30 per cent from the previous GH¢500.00 fee.
He said this had become necessary to make the application fee more affordable and accessible to citizens who wished to acquire the travel document.
Following the new reforms, passports can now be delivered within 15 days.
He also said that since the introduction of the chip-embedded passport by the ministry, a total of 215,807 Ghanaians across the country had applied and received their travel document.
The minister said that the backlog of over 40,000 passports had been cleared.
He said the Ghana passport was one of the strongest in the world and had currently secured 42 visa waivers from countries across the world.
The minister urged applicants to use the appropriate application channels and not be deceived by any person acting as a middleman.
Mr Ablakwa also commended the Ghana Post and Shack Express for their professional output in their delivery services, which come at no extra cost for applicants.
He also confirmed the commencement of 24-hour operations at the passport head office in Accra.
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