Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has blamed the current scarcity of international passports in its foreign missions on last year’s lockdown occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over 1,000 Nigerians are reported to be stranded in Atlanta, the United States (US), and other countries because of expired travel documents and their inability to renew them.
The public relations officer of NIS, Amos Okpu, spoke with LEADERSHIP that the 2020 lockdown had joined the challenge of renewal of international passports for Nigerians living in different parts of the world because of the restrictions.
He said, “We are not ignorant of the problems Nigerians living in different parts of the world are going through at the moment over their expired international passports. I must say that the challenge was caused by the 2020 lockdown occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, which had compounded the activities of the service.”
Okpu said the problem is more pronounced in countries where Nigeria does not have foreign desks, which, he added had left many Nigerians, living in such countries stranded.
While apologizing to such Nigerians, he said the service is making arrangements to visit such countries to take stock of the affected Nigerians to be able to renew their expired international passports.
Ada Peter
