Zimbabwe resumes printing passports

Home Affairs deputy minister Mike Madiro has said the government will clear the backlog on passports after settling a debt with foreign company providing consumables for the travel documents.

Madiro acknowledged that the country has a problem of the passports backlog but the situation was expected to change.

"With regards to the backlog on passports, yes we have got a serious challenge as far as clearing the backlog of issuing passports is concerned," said Madiro.

He said the shortage of foreign currency had largely contributed to the backlog in the issuing of passports.

"Again, this is due to shortage of consumables of which we are using imported consumables. There is a special paper which is used to print passports and other consumables including ribbons which are procured from foreign suppliers," said Madiro.

"Given the challenge of foreign currency, we have had a serious problem in procuring these consumables. However, I am happy to say that the Government has since paid what we owed our suppliers and very soon those imported consumables will be availed and we will make sure that we clear the backlog on passports."

Zimbabweans have over the past months struggled to get travel documents with reports that the government had stopped printing passports.