People holding Lebanese passports. (Credit: AFP file)
BEIRUT — Director General of General Security Abbas Ibrahim said Monday that Lebanon will receive 100,000 new biometric passports early next year, amid increased passport applications and delayed appointments.
"We should have received one million passports within six months," Ibrahim added, speaking in an interview with the Kuwaiti daily Alanbaa.
Lebanon has been experiencing an increase in passport applications for several months, exacerbated by the economic crisis, leading to a shortage of travel documents. Appointments have also faced long delays. General Security also had to suspend its online platform for making appointments to obtain or renew passports for more than a month last May, due in part to a delay in a payment owed by the state to the company responsible for printing travel documents.
"There is no passport crisis but an increase in demand. We assure that it is the right of every Lebanese to obtain a passport," Ibrahim said.
He added that 22,000 passports have still not been claimed by their owners and that 69 percent of the people who obtained passports recently have not yet used them.