Skopje, 9 February 2024 (MIA) — A large shipment of passport booklets is expected to arrive at the end of February, caretaker Minister of Internal Affairs Panche Toshkovski said in a TV21 appearance on Friday evening.

The shortage of passport booklets was the reason the passport applicants photographed in December and January had still not received their travel documents, he said.

"There are not enough booklets at the moment to meet the citizens' needs," Toshkovski said, adding that there were, however, enough identity cards and driver's licenses.

Regarding IDs, he said they would remain valid until their date of expiry, regardless of whether the new or the old name of the state was printed on them.

He urged citizens not to call to replace their IDs because the Ministry of Internal Affairs' calling system was overloaded. He said yesterday alone there were 500 calls per second. mr/