The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration has cancelled a total of 701 diplomatic and service passports, placing them on a stop-list and rendering them invalid for international travel.
This follows a nationwide recall process aimed at retrieving official travel documents from individuals no longer qualified to hold them.
Despite multiple public notices—issued on January 15 and March 10, 2025—urging the return of these passports, many were not surrendered, prompting the Ministry to proceed with mass cancellation.
According to the Ministry, the following categories of individuals are affected:
- Former Ministers of State and their spouses
- Former Members of Parliament
- Former Council of State members and their spouses
- Retired Justices of the Superior and Lower Courts
- Former Regional Ministers
- Former Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs)
- Former board members of public institutions
- Former non-career ambassadors and their dependents
- Individuals affiliated with the National Cathedral Project
- Religious leaders
- Traditional rulers
- Businesspersons and entrepreneurs previously granted official passports
- Former government functionaries not currently in public service
The Ministry emphasized that any cancelled passport found in use will be confiscated at ports of entry and exit.
This measure, the Ministry stated, is in strict adherence to the Passports and Travel Certificates Act, 1967 (NLCD 155), which governs the issuance and use of Ghanaian diplomatic and service passports.
