In its bid to establish the nationality of foreigners seeking asylum or want to get married, the Hungarian home office is doubting the genuineness of passports presented by those who claimed to be Nigerians, according to the Nigerian embassy in Budapest.

Those affected usually lost their previous passports. And since Nigerian embassy here does not issue passports, the affected Nigerians it seems have no choice other than to order them from home, which Hungarian immigration normally rejects because such passports are believed to be "improperly obtained". The Hungarian Immigration officials maintain that passports obtained by proxy would not be accepted.

On 17 July 1998 the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) introduced a new Standard Nigerian Passports called the Standard Machine Readable Passports (MRP). One of the procedures for acquisition of a Nigerian Passport is "capturing the applicant into the photographic and data collection computerised machine," which simply means the applicant must be physically present.

Hungarian authority puts great emphasis on this procedure and usually waits for the "culprits" to come for visa extension before they finally confiscate any suspicious passports. As a result of this clampdown however, some genuine passports were seized as well, but returned only after due investigation had been carried out. 

Many Nigerians including this writer constantly experience delay at the Hungarian airport because of "brutal interrogation" over the genuineness of a Nigerian passport, even though such passport is full of entry and exit stamps.

In the past, Nigerians have accused their consulate here for doing nothing about their problems, especially passport issue.

However, responding to the plight of their fellow Nigerians, the Nigerian Union executives decided to do something about it. "When they start seizing their passports, we went to the embassy to proffer solution," said Peter Ihaza, Nigerian Union President.

The meeting between Nigerian Union executives and the embassy, according to Ihaza, prompted the head of the Chancery, Mr. Madu, to contact their counterpart in Austria who have had such problems in the past. At first, it seems there’s nothing the embassy could do because most of the passports were "technically obtained illegally". But after establishing their identities as Nigerians, the embassy then contacted Hungarian immigration office for a "temporary solution".

Though some people got their passports back after a "gentleman’s" agreement was reached between the Nigerian embassy and Hungarian immigration, the former insists it’s a temporary solution, which does not call for celebration yet. "Passport is only part of the issue," said Mrs. Ester Ogundipe, Nigerian Consular.

Nigerians here are wondering why it is so difficult to bring passport machine to Nigrian embassy in Hungary, which is responsible for other five neighbouring countries.

Ihaza explained the need to have such passport machine at the Nigerian consulate in Hungary. He argued that, since the embassy here serves five other countries (Slovakia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Croatia), it’s normal for passport machine to be equipped. "It’s a shameful thing not to have this machine," adding that average Hungarians automatically believe one is a criminal if one can’t have a passport.

Meanwhile, the embassy hopes the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ngozi Okonjo-Iwela, would look into the problem.

Robot  Villager

# 1 In its bid to establish the nationality of foreigners seeking asylum or want to get married, the ...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 01.08.2006 21:20

Fjord  Villager

# 2 Balalola, I must nitpick: rather than having the Hungarian Immigration in the title, it's the Nigerian embassy that should be on the hot seat. If Nigeria treats her own badly, it's too much to expect better from foreign embassies. And I share your hope for reform by the new foreign minister. She needs to pay a visit to the Nigerian embassy in Sweden (which serves the rest of Scandinavia) and then the Nigerian embassy in the Netherlands. If the embassy in the Netherlands is an outpost for sth like terror, that in Sweden is an outpost for getting nothing done. Passport machines not available; passport paper not available; no ink etc etc I don't weep for the metals, neither for the trees, but I'm mad at the Nigerian embassy in Sweden for not being able to issue a passport document after requesting for all sorts of validation. Same for the Nigerian embassy in the Netherlands for the nonsense they peddle as service to Nigerians. You get to learn how much a country values its citizens by the way the embassies treat them. . Posted by Fjord| 02.08.2006 08:36

britroyal1  Villager

# 3 =Fjord>Balalola, I must nitpick: rather than having the Hungarian Immigration in the title, it's the Nigerian embassy that should be on the hot seat. If Nigeria treats her own badly, it's too much to expect better from foreign embassies. And I share your hope for reform by the new foreign minister. She needs to pay a visit to the Nigerian embassy in Sweden (which serves the rest of Scandinavia) and then the Nigerian embassy in the Netherlands. If the embassy in the Netherlands is an outpost for sth like terror, that in Sweden is an outpost for getting nothing done. Passport machines not available; passport paper not available; no ink etc etc I don't weep for the metals, neither for the trees, but I'm mad at the Nigerian embassy in Sweden for not being able to issue a passport document after requesting for all sorts of validation. Same for the Nigerian embassy in the Netherlands for the nonsense they peddle as service to Nigerians. You get to learn how much a country values its citizens by the way the embassies treat them. . Short, simple, sweet and most eloquently said. The problem is that we Nigerians treat foreigners better than we treat our own countrymen. The onus here is on the Nigerian Embassy/Government to advovate for the Nigerians in Hungary. Any other government would've arrested the situation since. The U.S considers its embassies as American soil and all Americans even foreign nationals therein get santuary. Shame that the Nigerian government cannot even advocate for its citizens in diaspora. Posted by britroyal1| 02.08.2006 09:56

UncleTisha  Villager

# 4 Put simply, this is clear manifestation of the incompetence that permeates the Nigerian embassies abroad. To make matters worse, Nigerian passports are the most expensive in the world. What are they made of, gold dust? I think it is high time Nigerians abroad starts exposing the rot in our embassies. Let's start naming and shaming the officials whose crass incompetence makes us the object of ridicule and embarrassments at the airports. Posted by UncleTisha| 02.08.2006 10:13

Exxcuzme  Villager

# 5 Which is in charge of passport, Internal or External Ministry? Posted by Exxcuzme| 02.08.2006 11:51