Passport refusal from Greece

26/08/2013 00:00

Few days away from the expiration of the deadline put by the Greek Government for crossing the border by Albanian children born in Greece, due to topographical in the biometric passport, the institution of Ombudsman asks Interior Ministry to take responsibility and immediately solved the problem, the cost of which is paid by citizens.

According to experts of Ombudsman Andi Bala, all the responsibility falls on the Directorate General of Civil Status and the Ministry of Interior.

“It is time to clearly and fully state that problems exist, to show for what reasons we came to this point and when will it be solved. If this problem is due to the errors of the Albanian state bodies, then it should not be transferred to citizens, but the Albanian institutions should solve their mistakes,” says Bala.

Although has sent his recommendations to solve the problem of biometric passports, experts say they have not received a response from the proper institutes. In the meantime, there are a lot of mistakes in passports of Albanian citizens regarding tampering letter ‘ë’ and ‘ç ‘.

“The Ministry of Interior and General Directorate of Civil Status have not responded to our letters and our recommendation regarding violations that we have found during verification of travel documents elements of Albanian citizens. This issue should be dealt seriously and with transparency by the Albanian State administration, in accordance with national and international rules. The representative of the Greek State has deposited with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Greek names of localities through a verbal note since June 2011 and the Albanian state has not expressed any objection or claim towards this verbal note” said Ombudsman vice/commisioner, Erind Piran.

According to Ombudsman Experts, topographical issue in biometric passports of Albanian immigrants should settle once and for all, because it cannot be left in the hands of such talks, as it has happened till now.

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