The Ministry of Internal Affairs responded to residents’ complaints regarding errors in foreign passports

On January 9 of this year, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tajikistan responded to a material published on social media regarding the presence of serious errors in documents.

The statement from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tajikistan says that there are no errors in the documents, including in passports, and in case of discovering errors, citizens can contact the passport service offices at their place of residence.

Colonel of Police Gul Mahbuba Talbi, head of the department and director of the official website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in connection with a material published a few days ago on the social network Facebook, which noted that in the passport service, instead of the name of the passport holder, the father’s name is written, and instead of the father’s name, the citizen’s own name is written, stated: “It should be noted that such a case has not occurred at all.”

The police colonel stated that any errors found in passports were due to mistakes in birth certificates.

“Personal data of citizens is recorded in the passport based on the data from the birth certificate issued by the registry office of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Tajikistan. The employees of the Passport Registration Service act according to this document, and this complies with the requirements of international documents,” writes Gul Mahbuba.

Previously, users of the Tajik segment of social media complained about serious errors in personal documents, including in passports. In particular, residents claimed that they changed their surnames ending in “-ev” and “-ov” to their name and father’s name, but “the employees of the Passport Registration Service intentionally wrote the father’s name instead of the passport holder’s name, and the citizen’s name instead of the father’s name.”

However, Gul Mahbuba Talbi writes that “the information that allegedly employees of the Passport Registration Service intentionally write the father’s name instead of the passport holder’s name, and the son’s name instead of the father’s name, is not true.”

At the same time, most citizens who chose their name and father’s name as their name and surname complain that before receiving their passports, their name and surname matched the birth certificate, but upon receiving the passport, their name was written instead of the surname, and the father’s name instead of their own name. According to them, these errors in passports have caused them many problems outside of Tajikistan.

In particular, a source told Azda TV that he graduated from high school in Tajikistan and wanted to continue his education at one of the universities in Russia.

“I received my passport, but I did not pay much attention to it. When I approached the university and submitted my documents, it turned out that my name was written correctly on the certificate (certificate of general secondary education), but in the passport, my name was written instead of the surname. I faced numerous difficulties. By the time I changed my passport and corrected this error, I missed an entire year of study,” the source reported.

Azda TV is asking citizens to share their opinions on the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ response to this issue. Those who received international passports and chose their first name and father’s name instead of a surname, are their names and surnames written correctly?