3.2.2. Access to civil documentation in Port Sudan

The Dutch report indicated that the issuance of passports and the determination of an individual's nationality is the responsibility of the General Administration of Passports and Migration, which falls under the Ministry of Interior of Sudan.600 According to confidential sources for the Dutch COI report, '[d]ue to the intense violence, people in the capital Khartoum could no longer apply for documents. Government agencies in charge of issuing documents, including the aforementioned General Administration of Passports and Migration, had relocated to Port Sudan'.601 Another source indicated that 'identity cards were not available anywhere, and birth certificates could be obtained only in states controlled by the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF)'.602

The Dutch report indicated that, according to confidential sources, there are 'several' states where it is still possible to apply for a passport, and that these states are usually under the control of the SAF, such as Sennar, Northern, River Nile, White Nile, Al Jazirah, Gedaref, Red Sea, Kassala, North Kordofan, and Blue Nile.603 The same source also indicated that it was possible to apply for a Sudanese passport at Sudanese embassies abroad, including in Cairo, Addis Ababa, Doha, Dubai, Juba, Jeddah, and Riyadh.604 Passport applications reportedly take over two months to be processed.605