Bushra was furious.
“April is over and May will be over soon, and I still haven’t received my passport,” she said, waving with a stack of papers, while standing outside the Al-Rusafa passport directorate in Baghdad. “Every time, there’s something else I have to do, another document I need to add to my file.”
Bushra, or Umm Noor, as she prefers to be called, wants to travel to India with her brother for him to have treatment on his eye condition. She accuses the state employees of deliberately creating obstacles to extort money from her.
“I will try to find someone who can do my application for a fee,” Bushra said. “What choice do I have? I just want to get a passport. A passport that three-quarters of the world’s countries do not recognize.”
The latter she said loudly, attracting a crowd of other applicants.
“The employees of the directorate only follow orders,” one said. “Money can reduce time and bureaucratic procedures,” said another, referring to the bribes paid to bypass obstacles.
“Money and procedures are only imposed on people like me,” Bushra replied. ”Others, like those ‘fair-haired boys’ with their connections, obtain a diplomatic passport without any effort.”
The Red Passport
Due to its red cover, Iraqis refer to the diplomatic passport as “the red passport.” According to Iraqi MPs, it has been granted to tens of thousands of individuals in recent years – a scandal threatening the prestige of the state.
The diplomatic passport It is one of four passports issued in Iraq. The othes are known as special, service and regular passports.
In recent years there has been a growing call for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) to put an end to the practice of granting diplomatic passports to non-eligible people, to review the status of all current passport holders, and to restrict the passport’s validity to the duration of one’s official duty.
MP Sarwa Abdulwahid
A member of the Parliamentary Integrity Committee, MP Sarwa Abdulwahid is one of the most prominent figures to have raised the issue of granting diplomatic passports to people who are not entitled. It is thought that the number of Iraqis holding a diplomatic passport has risen by 32,000 within a time span of four years.
On November 3, 2022, Abdulwahid demanded the MFA to disclose information about all diplomatic, special and service passports that have been issued, by whom, and on what legal basis.
The ministry ignored her request. When two weeks had passed, which is the required time to issue a response, MP Hadi Al-Salami joined Abdulwahid by filing a complaint against Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein.
In response, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani in December 2022 issued a directive instructing the MFA to review the legal status of all diplomatic passport holders and revoke passports from individuals who do not meet the legal requirements.
Today, some six months after the directive was issued, it is still not clear if any diplomatic passports have been revoked. Neither the Prime Minister’s Office nor the MFA have released any statements regarding the matter.
Only Brigadier Majid Ahmed, Director of Passport Affairs at Ministry of Interior has said it issued some 4,000 to 4,200 diplomatic passports since October 2021. The passports were granted to previous and current members of the Council of Representatives, and to exceptional cases designated by the MFA.
“Diplomatic Influencers”
Ahmed’s statement triggered a wave of anger, especially when it became known that social media celebrities, tribal leaders, and many other non-eligible individuals received a diplomatic passport, while ordinary Iraqi citizens struggle to obtain just a regular passport.
Ranked 106th on the VisaIndex 2023 Guide Passport Index, the regular Iraqi passport is considered the world’s second lowest, allowing its holders a visa-free entry to only 30 countries, while requiring them to obtain visas to 161 countries.
Mohamed Ali, an academic, said “the low status Iraqi passport” has at times prevented him from participating in international conferences due to the difficulties he faces in obtaining a visa.
“Meanwhile thousands of unqualified people obtain diplomatic passports solely due to their relation to public officials,” he said. “This is yet another manifestation of the corruption, which now pervades every political, administrative, financial, and even scientific position.”
Shooting Back the Ball
In 2022, the Ministry of Interior responded to the criticism by issuing a statement claiming it was only “an executive body” that operates in accordance with the rules and regulations related to both ordinary and diplomatic passports.
It is the Directorate of Civil Status, Passports and Residency that implements the laws after “official correspondence” from the relevant government agencies, “especially in regards to issuing diplomatic passports.”
Thus the Ministry of Interior put the ball firmly in the court of the MFA, as that is the entity authorized to grant diplomatic passports, “ordering” the Ministry of Interior to issue them.
Some sources claim that over 45,000 diplomatic passports have been garnted by the MFA under successive Iraqi governments since 2003, which they considered a sign of corruption and nepotism.
According to the Parliamentary Integrity Committee, MP Sarwa Abdulwahid in early May 2023 claimed the MFA had issued 32,000 diplomatic passports over the past four years, 10,000 of which were granted to individuals outside the diplomatic corps and not even MFA employees.
Abdulwahid confirmed she has filed a lawsuit against the MFA for granting diplomatic passports to individuals who by law are not entitled. She also intends to interrogate Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein in the Council of Representatives.
“Some of these diplomatic passports have been granted to TikTokers and fashion models,” she was quoted as saying. “It is unbelievable to have such a large number of diplomatic staff.”
“To whom does the Ministry of Foreign Affairs grant these diplomatic passports and on what basis?” she asked on Al Ahad TV. “I am a member of the Council of Representatives and the head of a party represented by nine MPs. But I don’t have a diplomatic passport. Nor will I ask for one.”
Art. 17
Who is entitled to hold a diplomatic passport in Iraq?
The question was answered by civil law specialist Abdulsalam Ghazi, who pointed out that the 2011 Passports Regulation addresses the matter in Article 17. According to him, it has some problematic aspects
“Article 17 provides granting a diplomatic passport to the spouses and children of all state employees mentioned in the text,” he said. “These may be the individuals the Parliamentary Integrity Committee is referring to when saying they do not deserve a diplomatic passport. Yet, the law gives these people the right.”
“It is normal for Iraq to grant tens of thousands of diplomatic passports,” he continued. “Since 2003, how many parliamentary terms have passed? How many governments’ foreign ministry employees? They definitely run in the thousands. Moreover, the sectarian system makes every entity want to secure a share of everything.”
Tariq Mohamed Dhanoun, Professor of Strategic International Relations at the Mosul University links the value of a diplomatic passport and its international status to scarcity. Meaning: the fewer the number of diplomatic passports granted, the higher their value, and vice versa.
He described the “extravagance” in issuing diplomatic passport in Iraq as “a factor that weakens the prestige of the passport, which has resulted in its consistently low international ranking.”
“The diplomatic passport is to facilitate the movement of its holder, who is supposed to go on a business trip or government mission, not on a leisure trip accompanied by family members all carrying the same passport.”
Dhanoun did not rule out that some diplomatic passport holders will take advantage of the privileges it offers “to smuggle currency, valuable goods or anything else for one’s personal benefit, rather than the public interest.”
* This report was produced under the supervision of the Network of Iraqi Reporters for Investigative Journalism (NIRIJ)
