The
Nigerian Ambassador to Portugal, Mrs Ijeoma Bristol, on Monday said
that the absence of an e-passport unit in the embassy was posing
challenges to Nigerians in Portugal.
Bristol made the announcement at a reception in honour of the Foreign
Affairs Minister, Amb. Olugbenga Ashiru, when he visited Lisbon.
“A lot of Nigerians in Portugal are trying to make ends meet and
cannot afford to go to Spain to renew their passports,” she said.
It would be recalled that the Nigeria Immigration Service in 2007
introduced e-passport to check growing cases of forgery, duplication and
identity theft associated with the machine-readable passport.
NAN however, learnt that Nigerians in countries without the
e-passport facility travelled to neighbouring nations having the
facility to acquire the document.
The envoy also said that Nigerians in Portugal were faced with the challenge of obtaining drivers’ licence.
According to her, the non-acceptance of Nigerian drivers’ licence by the Portuguese authorities remains a challenge.
NAN learnt that with such challenges, it would be difficult for
Nigerians who did no speak Portuguese to drive, especially as a driving
test in that language was required.
In his remarks, Ashiru, re-echoed government’s resolved to strengthen
its embassies and missions abroad, saying that the ministry would
continue to push for increased funding.
The minister also charged the Nigerian community to continue to
promote the nation’s image positively by being law abiding in their host
nation.
According to statistics from the embassy, more than 1,500 Nigerians are registered as residents in Portugal.(NAN)
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