Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) passports and (b) other identity documents submitted to the Khartoum Visa Application Centre before 15 April 2023 (i) remain in the Khartoum Visa Application Centre, (ii) are being held by the Nairobi Visa Application Centre, (iii) are being held in countries neighbouring Sudan, (iv) otherwise remain in UK Government custody and (v) have been returned to applicants.

Where our records confirm that a customer’s passport is being held in the Visa Application Centre (VAC) in Khartoum, UK Visas and Immigration have contacted all those customers that have been issued or refused visa applications in our VAC in Khartoum and offered them a letter confirming that their passport is securely stored and attaching a digital copy of their passport, that may help support their travel out of Sudan and into a third country.

Where our records show that the passport is held in Nairobi or Pretoria and a named individual (either the applicant or a designated 3^rd party) is identified to return the passport to outside of Sudan, the passport can be sent (to the named individual) by courier or for collection from another visa application centre. UK Visas and Immigration have contacted all those customers. For customers that have been able to exit Sudan, processes are in place to re-direct printing of their visa and endorsement on a Form for affixing a visa (FAV) to another VAC location of their choice for collection.