The department of immigration is expected from this month end to start printing passports in Lilongwe for applicants who apply for the much sought after national travelling document.

For years all passports have been getting printed at the immigration department headquarters in Blantyre and that all necessary information once collected in Lilongwe was being sent to Blantyre for printing passport books.

Chief Immigration Officer Dr Hudson Mankhwala said in an interview that the move to start printing passports in Lilongwe apart from Blantyre aims at reducing pressure and congestion which he admitted to be a big challenge facing the department.

Mankhwala said that the department through the new printing machine in Lilongwe expect to reduce the backlog of passport applications at their offices.

He said that the backlog was created because the department had only Blantyre as passport printing centre against the national demand.

He said that “We have managed to procure another printing machine which we are currently finalizing installing in Lilongwe” he said.

The immigration chief then said that the immigration department will work towards ensuring timely delivery of service to Malawians after noting that a lot of Malawians have been complaining of inefficiencies from the department.

The department considered as one of the most corrupt government departments with a lot of Malawians applying for passports on the waiting list an issue which result in corruption activities happening as desperate applicants gives kickbacks to officials for quick release of their printed passports.