The Directorate of Immigration and Passport, Nationality has dismissed reports that South Sudanese passports are being rejected by some western countries.

This week, an official of a civil society organization said South Sudan as a country is not recognized on some online services.

The group did not name the countries that apparently do not recognize South Sudan online, but they said South Sudan is not included in several countries’ visa lists.

However, the director of Immigration and Passport, Nationality, Major General Agustino Madut told Eye Radio that the South Sudanese passport is a universally recognized document and can be used in any country.

“I think it is false information; the passport is done in the international standard,” he said.

“We’ve a certificate that the International Civil Aviation Organization has recognized and we have the first passport in the region, even better than the one of Uganda, Kenya –  one of the best among the five countries in Africa who have E-passport and readable machine.”

“If there are complaints like that, report them to us; somebody may be rejected on immigration grounds, not necessarily that he has a problem with passport.”

Maj- Gen. Madut also said South Sudan has four categories of passports: diplomatic, official, special and the ordinary citizen’s passports.

Recently, a social media group on Facebook started a campaign to have Juba city deregistered as near ‘al-Khartoum’, as it appears on some online sites.