Citizens trying to renew their passports or other Interior Ministry issued documents are sharing daily complaints about the long lines, the line skipping and overall chaos in the Skopje branch.

Problems began months ago, when the Ministry began struggling with shortage of blank passports. The arrival of tens of thousands of emigrants for their usual summer vacation in Macedonia, when many of them also try to complete bureaucratic matters, added to the problem, as did the arrest of a dozen Interior Ministry clerks involved in a scheme of issuing passports to regional and international drug-lords.

Many of the citizens who are forced to wait hours in line to have their picture taken or to receive their passport, say that the situation in the large complex of offices in the MRTV building is also a major coronavirus spreading hazard.