‘No plans to change temporary passport procedures for Palestinians’

AMMAN — There are no plans to change the mechanism to issue temporary passports for Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, a senior official said on Sunday.

Civil Status and Passports Department (CSPD) Director General Marwan Qteishat described the issuance of temporary passports as a “centralised process” from Amman that will not be changed.

Qteishat was responding to news reports published recently that quoted Yousef Harb, deputy director of the passport department at the Palestinian interior ministry, as saying the Palestinian side has proposed that temporary Jordanian passports granted to Palestinians be issued from Ramallah instead of Amman.

Harb reportedly said a Jordanian delegation that recently concluded a visit to Ramallah presented the proposal to the Kingdom’s mission there for deliberation and then approval.

In remarks to The Jordan Times, Qteishat dismissed the reports as inaccurate, stressing that such documents are issued solely from the central bureau at the CSPD in accordance with the relevant laws.

However, he said the department is exerting its utmost efforts to facilitate the procedures required for temporary passports.

The government grants two- and five-year temporary passports to Palestinians in the West Bank in accordance with the 1988 administrative and legal disengagement decision, to facilitate their travel.