ALEPPO, Syria (North Press) – Residents in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo are under investigation by the Syrian security apparatus for paying passport fees for relatives living outside Syria, which immigration and passports branches require to be paid in the US dollars, although foreign exchange transactions inside Syria are prohibited according to a previous presidential decree.
The Syrian government imposed a fee of between $300-$1500 on Syrians residing outside the country to obtain passports for them and their newborn children on December 11 last year.
Residents and customers of the Immigration and Passports Department in Aleppo city were confused about the decision to pay in dollars, which contradiced Syrian president's decree banning transactions in currencies other than the Syrian pound, in addition to the difficulty of securing the US dollar for the Immigration and Passports branch.
Ziyad Maarawi said he was subjected to an investigation by security authorities when obtaining a passport for his brother, a minor who lives outside Syria, when he registered with the Immigration and Passports Branch and secured the fees required to be paid in dollars in order to pay fines. "I was subject to an investigation to find out how I got the dollars.”
"The solution for the Syrian government is to secure the dollar through the Central Bank of Syria in order to facilitate the transactions of the population, or to pay at the Central Bank in the Syrian pound," he said.
On January 18 this year, Syrian President Bashar Assad issued a decree prohibiting non-Syrian pound currencies as a means of payment, a crime which would carry a punishment of at least seven years' hard labor and a fine equal to twice the value of the payments.
Muhammad Misr, a resident of al- Hamadaniyeh neighborhood in the city of Aleppo, told North Press he has trouble registering his brother's children living outside Syria and obtaining passports for them, because "the fee is $300 per person and the money is delivered inside the immigration and passport branch building."
He noted that he had asked the competent official to agree to pay the amount in Syrian pounds instead of dollars, but he later refused to receive the amount in Syrian pounds.
Misr added, "They do not accept payment in the Syrian pound, and if I brought the amount in dollars, I would have been investigated."
According to the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, the consular fee when granting or renewing a passport or travel document for Syrian citizens and their equivalents who are outside the Syrian Arab Republic is $800 for expidited and $300 for regular. A fine of $50 is imposed for the loss or damage of a passport, and $25 is paid as a fee for a traffic ticket.
A source from inside the Immigration and Passports Branch in Aleppo, who asked not to be identified, said the number of those wishing to obtain passports has declined because the government arrested all those who deal with non-Syrian currencies after the presidential decree, and the failure to assist the Central Bank as a government agency in securing the dollar.
He told North Press, "It is expected that the mechanism of dealing in foreign currency within the Immigration and Passport branches will change, but no new method has been decided yet."