Reporting by Abdullah ِAl Ghadawi; Translation by Yusra Ahmed
(Zaman Al Wasl)- Nizar al-Heraki, Coalition's Envoy to Qatar detailed to Zaman al-Wasl the effort done to obtain a the power to renew Syrians’ expired passports, after the regime hardened lives of activists and prevented them from getting official documents.
The Envoy said that Syrians can extend the date of expiration by the New Year in the National Coalition’s Embassy in Doha, after more than a year and a half of fevered efforts made by Syrian opposition in cooperation with Qatar state.
He explained that he had contacted the Coalition in regard to renewing passports since the first Coalition’s presidency when Moaz al-Khatib was the Head of the National Coalition, then Ahmed Jarba and Hadi al-Bahra, and he showed them the cost and the significant efforts the Ministry of Foreign Affair in Qatar gave to achieve the goal of renewing the passports in the Embassy, the only recognized body as an Embassy.
In regard to the legal and international aspects connected to extending the passports, al-Heraki explained that they officially communicated and sent a sample of the stickers to 52 countries in Europe, Asia and Africa, besides the United nations UN, the Arab League, European Union, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and Gulf Cooperation Council. “the statement we sent was informative and sort of a notice with no expectation of response. Then we did not receive any reply from any country, except Canada which rejected the idea, therefore we assumed implicit agreements of the countries”.
About attesting official documents like birth, death and scientific certificates in the Coalition’s Embassy in Doha, the Envoy mentioned that attestation of any Syrian official document in the Embassy in Doha is internationally recognized, as they are attested by the Qatari foreign Affair Ministry.
However, he mentioned that since the Syrian Passports are purely Syrian documents, Qatar’s foreign affairs ministry cannot attest them but passports are recognised in Qatar.
Al-Heraki confirmed that enough renewal stickers are available in the Embassy, and fees are paid to a bank account specified for the service.
He explained that renewal stickers issued by the Embassy are different from the ones regime uses, and they are headed with “Syrian Arab Republic” while they are stamped with the Embassy stamp, and those stickers are the ones were sent to countries. “the forged stickers are the ones similar to regime’s stickers”
He confirmed that renewal would start in the beginning of 2015, and delaying the job was purely technical.
He confirmed that forging renewal stickers is difficult as they were printed in special printing houses using particular kind of paper, following all the international criteria to protect against forging, like money and Passports.
He added that they have machines able to discover the forged passports, besides that the embassy had discovered many forged documents.
In the end, the Coalition’s Envoy to Qatar warned opposition of the fierce and intensive attack by the regime and its supporters, as they try to minimise their effort and defaming the opposition’s organisations.
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