The Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services has disclosed that it has embarked on a full-scale exercise of clearing outstanding passport

applications that were submitted between the months of January 2023 and June 2024.

Department's National Public Relations Officer, Wellington Chiponde said in a statement available to Nyasa Times on Monday that during the exercise, the Department is determined to systematically clear all the backlog and meet the prevailing demand for passport services.

"In order to address challenges that applicants face to access passport services, the Department is in the process of decentralizing provision of passport services to all Passport Printing Centres in all the Regions," he said.

Chiponde further said the decentralization arrangement will start with Blantyre Office, followed by Mzuzu Office and finish with Mangochi Office.

In the interim, he said, all passport applications that were submitted from all the centres are being processed in Lilongwe, and since the Department resumed provision of passport services on 13th March, 2024, a total number of 25,714 passports have been issued as at 30th June, 2024.

All the issued passports, have been dispatched to the Passport Printing Centres of Blantyre, Mzuzu and Mangochi where applications were initially submitted.

Chiponde added that passport applicants are therefore advised to visit and collect their passports from the Centres they submitted their applications.

The Department has displayed all the names of passports that have been issued and dispatched in all the Passport Printing Centres.