2023-05-24 05:05:49
Leah-Maria Ghanem wrote in “Nidaa Al-Watan”: With the onset of the great economic crisis coinciding with the “Corona” pandemic, the Lebanese lived in a state of pathological anxiety regarding the issue of passports. It has dates for submitting applications, and some dates were set following months and sometimes following a year. This method contributed to the disappearance of congestion, and to speed up the completion of transactions, and the citizen would receive his passport a month following submitting the application, or a month and a half at the latest.
On the 6th of last March, following the announcement of the former Director General of Public Security, Major General Abbas Ibrahim, that the passport crisis had ended and that there was no need for the electronic platform, the platform was canceled and appointments were brought closer, but the submission of urgent applications remained valid for urgent applications. The centers returned to their previous state and opened their doors to all citizens, which previously, that is, before the crisis, received from 2,000 to 2,500 applications per day. So she received five thousand! While the daily capacity for issuing passports is three thousand as a maximum!
We bid farewell to the platform and received the scene of crowding and gathering since the early hours of dawn. Some people spent their nights in front of the locked doors, and following opening them, one of the soldiers distributed numbers to them, so that they would return the next day and enter the center in turn to carry out their transactions, not caring regarding the cost of four million pounds for a passport. Valid for ten years, and two million pounds for the five-year passport.
Forget the issue of the Lebanese passports, their reproducing living crises, from the eroding wages to the presidential vacuum crisis, especially following talking regarding reactivating the platform as a solution to the overcrowding problem. After the confusion and fears of the Passport crisis, the General Directorate of Public Security confirmed in a statement that it had enough passports to meet all requests at home and abroad, so there is no need for panic. And I asked those who do not have an immediate need to apply for a passport, to make room for those who are forced to obtain it. She also called on them not to take into account the rumors that circulate from time to time.
The General Directorate of Public Security appealed to the citizens that “to the extent that the Directorate bears the responsibility of securing the rights of citizens and facilitating its procedures, it asks them to share this responsibility with it,” especially in terms of not rushing to the centers to obtain passports, except for those who are in urgent need of them.
But the presence of a passport under the pillow is a psychological need and makes the citizen reassured of his tomorrow outside the homeland.
platform and back
With the large crowds and renewed chaos in front of the public security centers, news is circulated stating that the platform has been reactivated and that applications are submitted through it to organize the work, provided that the dates for submitting applications are given a week following registration, and without conditions such as those previously set (possession of a hotel reservation, residence or documents stating that the purpose of travel is work, medicine or education) as long as the passports are available.
The Public Security Adviser, retired Brigadier General Mounir Akiki, starts from the Public Security statement that was distributed on May 18, 2023, and confirms that if the citizen adheres to it, frankly, this will constitute a great relief from this crazy crowd at the gates of the centers, as the security forces feel sad to see the citizens They wait for long hours in order to obtain a passport, and there are those who are in a hurry because they are afraid of raising their prices, or because someone misled them that there are not enough passports and that they will not get it at all.
The reasons are not justified for rushing, because on the other hand, there are also a large number who need a passport immediately. Some of them want to travel, others have a job opportunity and are forced to travel, and some of them want to visit their children abroad as well.
What is required of people is that if they need a passport in May, they submit the application in March or April, that is, a month or two before the maximum.
The option of the platform still exists, according to Akiki, on the condition that it gives the required benefit, but it has not been decided yet, as the debate is still open on the issue of returning the platform or not. However, the first and last goal at the present time is to organize this dilemma, and the personnel in the centers cannot estimate which of the requests is more urgent, as there are many ways to justify the urgency.
And he stresses that whoever does not need a passport at the present time should wait for the time he needs it, and this is all that is available now, and any new that will happen, the General Directorate of Public Security will inform the citizens.
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#Passports #available. #panic
