Uganda, April 23 -- The government says it will destroy more than 50,000 uncollected passports worth Shs12.5 billion in a bid to create more storage space.

The Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control said most of the untaken passports belong to maids who were seeking employment in the Middle East.

Mr Simon Mundeyi, the Internal Affairs ministry's spokesperson, said some of these passports have remained unclaimed for longer than six years. He said their predicament has been worsened by an additional 2,000 unclaimed passports applied for between January to April this year.

"We now have about 50,000 passports in our stores across the country, which have not been claimed by the owners. Since every day we have new applicants, hav...