Pakistan expats in the UAE to get passports by June, says embassy

DUBAI // Pakistan has promised the tens of thousands of UAE expatriates awaiting new passports will have them by the end of June.
The country's interior ministry has been unable to print passports for months, reportedly due to a shortage of laminated paper.
It has left about 40,000 Pakistanis in the UAE without travel documents, for which many have waited up to a year.
Pakistan's embassy said ambassador Jamil Ahmed Khan stressed the urgency of the situation to the interior ministry on Wednesday.
"The ministry is committed to begin reprinting passports instantly and assured the ambassador of ending the entire backlog by end of June," the embassy said.
"The authorities acknowledged the efforts made by Pakistan's Embassy in the Emirates in highlighting this matter at the highest government forums and simultaneously addressing the concerns of the expat community."
As a temporary measure, consular and embassy officials have been putting stickers that grant a six-month extension inside old passports.
"The problem with this is that many countries do not accept passport extensions in this way," said Mobisher Rabbani, a diplomatic consultant who previously worked at Pakistan's consulate in Dubai.
"If you have to travel to Pakistan you will be OK but anywhere else like Europe, the US or even into the UAE there could be problems.
"Most of these countries only accept electronically printed passports. As a result many in the community have been having problems travelling on these passports."
Mr Rabbani said the problem affected the issuing of all Pakistani passports, not just those for expatriates in the UAE.
The issuing of new and renewed passports is usually done in three days for urgent requests and about a week for normal orders.
On Wednesday Mr Khan made a surprise visit to the consular hall at the embassy and ordered staff to do more to help members of the community facing delays with passports.
The problem relates to the new machine-readable passports.
"The backlog in the issuance of new machine-readable passports stands at over 40,000 requests from the UAE alone, which can cause loss of jobs and heavy fines that may lead to cancellation of visas," the embassy.
nhanif@thenational.ae