Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Sunday, Aug 24, 2025

Thousands stuck as Lebanese authorities suspend passport renewals

Thousands stuck as Lebanese authorities suspend passport renewals

Lebanon’s General Security Organisation says that it has run out of passports, government has not paid for more.

Lebanese authorities have said that they cannot keep up with demand for new passports and will indefinitely stop issuing them, as the country’s worsening economic crisis continues to push people to leave the country.

Lebanon’s General Security Organisation (GSO) announced on Thursday that the number of passports it had available to issue had dwindled, even as requests for new passports had increased tenfold over the past two years.

The body said that appointments for the issuance or renewal of passports would therefore be suspended.

It also added that the Lebanese government had been asked to pay a company contracted to produce more passports, but that it had not done so.

The head of the GSO, Major-General Abbas Ibrahim, said in December that Lebanon has been struggling to cope with up to 8000 daily requests for new passports.

Aline Fleihan, an architect and activist, waited overnight at the GSO headquarters last September just to obtain an appointment for a passport renewal.

The following day Fleihan said that she was forced to wait for hours in a queue in the sweltering heat with hundreds of others, only for employees to tell her to come back again because the office had reached its daily applications limit.

“I decided to relocate for the first time in my life, because the conditions of living are no longer bearable,” Fleihan told Al Jazeera. “It’s normal that people are willing to leave the country. How can we be able to sustain ourselves or live when there is a lack of basic human needs and rights?”

In less than three years, the Lebanese pound has lost 90 percent of its value, and three-quarters of the population has been plunged into poverty.

Many Lebanese blame the country’s ruling sectarian political parties, banks, and private sector cronies for decades of systematic corruption, financial mismanagement, and poor economic planning.

The GSO had tried to ease pressure at their offices by setting up online appointments, but while that helped with crowd control, it did not ease demand.

Karim Khansa, a 30 year-old engineer, signed up online in December, was scheduled for an appointment four months later in April, and was told to bring a plane ticket and proof of address.

“They still didn’t finish the process though, they told me I still need to wait another 10 days,” Khansa told Al Jazeera.

Mohammad Chamseddine, of the Lebanese research consultancy firm Information International, told Al Jazeera that at least 77,000 Lebanese had left the country in 2021, almost three-quarters of them between the ages of 25 and 40.

And many who are still in the country hope to follow suit – a Gallup poll in late 2021 revealed that 63 percent of Lebanese would like to permanently leave the country in the face of worsening living conditions.

The brain drain is affecting multiple sectors – including the already crippled health sector, with the World Health Organization estimating that at least 40 percent of doctors and 30 percent of nurses have left the country.


Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
High-Stakes Trump-Putin Summit on Ukraine Underway in Alaska
Iranian Protection Offers Chinese Vehicle Shipments a Cost Advantage over Japanese and Korean Makers
Saudi Arabia accelerates renewables to curb domestic oil use
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez announce engagement
Asia-Pacific dominates world’s busiest flight routes, with South Korea’s Jeju–Seoul corridor leading global rankings
Private Welsh island with 19th-century fort listed for sale at over £3 million
Sam Altman challenges Elon Musk with plans for Neuralink rival
Australia to Recognize the State of Palestine at UN Assembly
The Collapse of the Programmer Dream: AI Experts Now the Real High-Earners
Armenia and Azerbaijan to Sign US-Brokered Framework Agreement for Nakhchivan Corridor
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
BP’s Largest Oil and Gas Find in 25 Years Uncovered Offshore Brazil
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
British Tourist Dies Following Hair Transplant in Turkey, Police Investigate
WhatsApp Users Targeted in New Scam Involving Account Takeovers
Trump Deploys Nuclear Submarines After Threats from Former Russian President Medvedev
Germany’s Economic Breakdown and the Return of Militarization: From Industrial Collapse to a New Offensive Strategy
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
President Trump Diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency After Leg Swelling
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
Kurdistan Workers Party Takes Symbolic Step Towards Peace in Northern Iraq
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
×