I have just received a memo signed by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, dated 14 July 2008, informing us of the following:

 

1. All Namibian manual (handwritten) passports currently in circulation shall be phased  out by

28 February 2009 and any such passports which by that day will have not yet expired will be considered invalid and will not be honoured for travel or any other purposes.

 

2. Official notices through the internet and other forms of communication will be circulated throughout the world requesting countries not to honour any Namibian manual (handwritten) passports as from that day.

 

3. In view of the above, all Namibians who may still be in possession of manual handwritten valid passports, are hereby urgently requested to surrender such passports and to apply for machine readable travel documents.

 

It should also be noted that the Embassy of Namibia in Paris does not issue passports and it is always better for the nationals contact directly the Ministry of Home Affairs.

 

I thank you in advance for your cooperation.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Dr. Panduleni-Kaino SHINGENGE

Ambassador