The Government is expediting the processing of passports for pilgrims of the 2025 Hajj to facilitate smooth traveling and ensure many Muslims have access to embark on the sacred journey.
The exercise, which began on Monday, March 3, is being carried out at the Hajj Village, Accra and other specialised Hajj Booths across the regions.
It would process passports for Muslims within a maximum of three-working days and for the usual standardised fee of GHS500.00.
Mr Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, said citizens had, for a long time, complained of stress and hustle from the cumbersome processes just to acquire passports.
Hence ensuring the smooth and expedited service for acquisition of passports was one of the priorities of President John Dramani Mahama, he said.
The Minister said this during a press briefing on government’s preparations to facilitate passports acquisition for pilgrims, when he visited the Hajj Village on Tuesday.
“We hear of middlemen, called goro boys, taking advantage of the stress people go through, promising that when you pay more, you will get a passport within a time frame,” he said.
“So, we set out to get major reforms. I set up the Passport Reforms Committee on the first day I stepped into office. And the 24-hour operation at the passport office is one of the initiatives from the Committee.”
“We intend to reduce the processing time from weeks and months to 15 days for a start and subsequently reduce it to seven working days.”
As part of the reforms, Mr Ablakwa said the government was also putting measures in place to provide courier services to deliver passports to citizens, considering the backlog of uncollected booklets at the passport office.
“So, these are the reforms we are implementing and the cardinal objective is to bring convenience and take away the frustration.”
“Today the history that we have made, thanks to the mission of His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, is to advance the cause of convenience and simplicity to make sure our brothers and sisters in Islam get to embark on Hajj, which is one of the five crucial pillars of Islam.”
“That is why we have set up a Satellite passport application centre at the Hajj Village here and the beauty is that we have set a target and when one applies for it, within a maximum of three working days, they would receive their passport.”
“ So all our partners including the immigration, are here to ensure screening and smooth completion of the process here,” he said.
These measures were to ensure that the 5000 Muslims expected to embark on this year’s pilgrimage met the deadlines, he indicated.
Mr Ablakwa admonished the applicants to cooperate with the passport officials to ensure smooth running of the process.
“We are all Ghanaians and want a smooth process but please do it in civility and accord all respect to the officials,” he appealed.
“Please follow instructions and it will be a win-win situation for us all. We do not want to hear there’s a stampede and people are disrespecting our officials. With that we won’t be happy at all.”
“You are going for a sacred pilgrimage and it’s important that everything is done in an orderly manner that pleases Almighty Allah.”
Alhaji Collins Dauda, Chairman of the Hajj Board, reiterated the challenges Muslims went through every year just to access passports to embark on Hajj.
“Sometimes some Muslims even collapse at the passport office…I drew the attention of the President to it and he graciously heeded our call,” he said.
He said the effort to facilitate passport acquisition was a good omen, adding: “The speed at which Honourable Ablakwa was driving the vessel was very fast.”
He commended President Mahama for being a blessing to the Muslim Ummah.
“Today is one of the days that Muslims in this country will never forget. Passport has never been issued out of the passport office before except in the second term of President Mahama. We pray for long life and good health for him.”
Alhaji Dauda criticised the questioning of some ‘Fulanis’ and ‘Zamramas’ as non-Ghanaians, saying there was no provision in the Constitution that said one ethnic group was a Ghanaian and the other was not.
“So, under no circumstance should one say, your face looks like a ‘Zamrama’ man or ‘Mossie’ and so you are not a Ghanaian,” he advised.
GNA
