File: Nationality, Passport and Immigration centre in Juba, South Sudan.

The Directorate of Nationality, Passports and Immigration has launched a new high-tech printing machines in Juba to ease the production of legal IDs.

The department has been experiencing series of breakdown of the production machines since 2017.

It was reported that South Sudan faced production challenges because a German company, Muhlbauer, blocked the passports and national identification server after the government failed to clear its arrears.

The production has since been on and off with several delays between filling the form, to taking a photograph and receiving the passport.

The new GLP54 identifiers machines are expected to accelerate issuance of national IDs and passports for the public.

Speaking during the launch of the new biometric scheme on Wednesday, the Director General of Nationality, Passport and Immigration, Major General John Akot Maluth said the services will also be extended outside Juba.

“We have also acquired a good number of mobile kit system that will be sent to the states and embassies abroad in our efforts to make the vision of the SPLM of taking services to the villages a reality and practical,”Maj. Gen. Akot said.

Speaking at the same occasion, the Minister of Information, Michael Makuei argued the department to assign qualified individuals who will take proper care of the highly modernized machine.

“My advice is that you need to take care of these equipment because they are highly sophisticated equipment. So they need people who are really qualified and properly trained to run these machinery, so that they don’t break down,” Makuei said.

Last month, President Salva Kiir launched the civil registry which will be issuing personal ID cards, death certificates, marriage and divorce certificates in South Sudan.