via Mudenda decries queues at passport offices 27 November 2014
NATIONAL Assembly Speaker Jacob Mudenda yesterday bemoaned the long queues that had become a permanent feature at the passport offices, describing them as an insult to human dignity.
Mudenda was speaking during the launch of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) Nationality and Statelessness Handbook for parliamentarians at a Harare hotel.
“MPs need to push for speedy processing of passports for citizens because it is a right – it is not a privilege, and long queues are an affront to human dignity as it is wrong to have a cumbersome process of getting passports and other identity documents,” Mudenda said.
Mudenda said the Legislature should come up with laws to ensure acquisition of passports was easy and legal solutions to solve statelessness, as well as generate debate on the issue to end human trafficking, threats of political instability, internal conflicts and other issues that rendered people stateless.
He added that people living on the streets deserved respect and urged MPs to make concerted efforts to give them an identity.
“When we see street kids in our towns our consciences should be prickled because they deserve the right to be humans – and MPs should make concerted efforts to ensure all street kids disappear from the streets,” he said.
United Nations resident coordinator Bishow Parajuli said every sector, including the legislature, should help address issues of statelessness as there were many heart breaking stories of women and children who were displaced and stateless.
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