THE Registrar-General's Office says it still has a backlog of 78 355 passport applications despite the introduction of steep fees in foreign currency early this year.

Long queues are still the order of the day at passport offices throughout the country as desperate Zimbabweans battle to get the much sought after travel document.

In August, the government pegged the passport fees at US$140 down from US$170 for a standard passport.

An express and a diplomatic passport processed in one day costs US$315 while an emergency travel document costs US$35.

Some Zimbabweans have been waiting since 2006 to get passports after the RG's office at one time suspended the issuing of the travel document because it could not import production material.

But speaking at a press conference last week, passport production manager at the RG's office Monica Chigumba said a lot had been done to clear the backlog since the department was computerised last December.

"There is a reduction of 221 645 applications from the previous backlog of 300 000 accumulated in 2006," Chigumba said.

Passports became highly sought after at the height of Zimbabwe's economic meltdown as people resorted to cross-border trade in order to make ends meet.

The department has also failed to meet demand for birth certificates and other identity documents.

But Deputy Registrar-General Dianah Sarah Dawkins said most of the people who were failing to get documents were former refuges and foreigners.

"We went to Epworth and out of about 100 people, who came for registration, we only managed to register five, the rest did not qualify."

Dawkins said the office had registered about 93% of the country's population. "To demonstrate the department's continuous added effort on vital civil registration the department has registered 13 080 054 which is 93.4 % of the current population of 14 million," she said.

GAPWUZ information officer Tapiwa Zivira said this was because their parents, mostly from Malawi and Mozambique did not have proper documents.

He also said the centres are too far from the farms and the parents cannot afford bus fares to regional centres.

"Our research has indicated that over 90 % do not have birth certificates because their parents do not have registration certificates themselves so it is impossible for them to go and get birth certificates for their children," he said.

"In some cases, the children lost both parents to HIV/Aids."

By The Standard