NIS Reacts To Protest By Nigerians At UK Passport Centre

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has attributed the problems experienced during the federal government’s passport intervention exercise in the United Kingdom to a temporary technical issue.

Videos posted on social media on Monday showed a large number of Nigerians gathered outside a locked entrance at the passport intervention centre in Manchester.

Some of the posts claimed that applicants had spent several hours waiting without receiving attention.

Another video showed a man asking Nigerians at a passport intervention venue to leave the premises.

Social media users identified him as the owner of a lounge reportedly rented by the authorities for the passport exercise in London.

The man allegedly complained about the handling of the exercise and claimed that Nigerian authorities had failed to pay him for the use of his facility.

There were also allegations on social media that applicants were being asked to pay £70 as an administrative charge for the passport intervention.

Following the complaints, the Minister of Interior Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo said he was aware of the difficulties Nigerians in the UK were facing during the exercise.

Tunji-Ojo said his ministry was working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to resolve the issues and prevent further inconvenience to applicants.

In a statement issued early Tuesday, the NIS said the technical problem had been resolved and passport services had continued.

The agency explained that the disruption occurred briefly on Monday morning and mainly affected biometric capturing at the Manchester centre.

According to the NIS, the problem was quickly fixed, allowing the exercise to continue without further disruption.

“Following a brief technical downtime earlier yesterday morning that temporarily disrupted biometric capturing, especially at Manchester center, and its prompt resolution, the exercise proceeded smoothly,” the statement reads.

The immigration service said 230 applicants who had scheduled appointments were attended to and had their biometric data captured.

It added that 140 applicants were processed in Manchester, while another 90 were attended to in London.

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