There are more and more people in Bosnia and Herzegovina without personal documents, i.e. biometric ID cards. From the beginning of the issuance of biometric identity cards in 2013 until today, that number is 93,149, according to the data of the Agency for Identification Documents, Records and Data Exchange of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Why is this so, and what in that case can citizens do or not do, because they do not have this important identification document?
10,737 is the total number of lost, missing and stolen biometric identity cards since the beginning of this year, data from the Agency for Document Identification, Records and Data Exchange of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Citizens are mostly informed about the procedures for applying and creating this document, but, as they say, they often take a long time.
“All citizens who lose their identity cards are obliged to report it to the competent authority. After that, a decision is made, and after that, that information goes through our systems and ends up on our website and the open data portal on the status of those documents, i.e. that they are lost or destroyed. “, says Drazen Vujica from IDDEEA.
There are many more lost biometric ID cards than stolen, this is the data available to the KS MUP. The largest number of lost, missing or stolen biometric ID cards is recorded in HNK, Canton Sarajevo and Banja Luka.
“When registering at the competent police station, a report on the loss or damage or destruction of the ID card will be issued, where with this confirmation, the department for civil conditions of the MUP will submit a request for the cancellation of the ID card and will receive a decision, with that decision he goes to the counter of the sector where he submits a decision about the loss and a payment slip of 18 marks. He will also submit a certificate of citizenship and then the competent sector will issue a new identity card within 15 days.”, Malik Kadric, Department for Legal and Personnel Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Canton Sarajevo.
Exhaustive procedures, but it is not out of the question to be vigilant and keep this important personal document. As a reminder, according to the Law on Identity Cards, possession of an identity card is mandatory because it is a basic document, and not having it is a misdemeanor, and as we were told by the KS MUP, the fine for this misdemeanor is 40 marks.
