A parliamentary report released on 10 November found that 1,301 disappeared in 2024 and recommended tighter controls, accountability and the cancellation of unlawful passports and citizenships.
Vanuatu’s Public Accounts Committee found that 1,390 diplomatic passports went missing during 2019–2024 and remained unaccounted for. Of those passports, 1,301 disappeared in 2024. The report, released on 10 November 2026, followed years of concerns about the country’s issuance of diplomatic passports.
The committee also found irregularities in appointments and passport issuance. OCCRP, which obtained the report, said Prime Minister Jotham Napat and Foreign Minister Marc Ati did not respond to the committee’s requests for comment. Ati declined to comment to OCCRP, while Napat’s office did not respond.
The committee’s parliamentary conclusions, distinct from criminal charges or court judgments, follow its review of passport administration. Its responsibilities include reviewing ministries’ annual reports and reporting to Parliament, receiving briefings or initiating inquiries within its subject areas, and considering relevant ministerial orders and matters referred by Parliament.
The committee said Napat, Ati and other senior officials improperly appointed foreign nationals as special envoys and trade commissioners, granting them diplomatic status and passports without meeting residency requirements or legal mandates. Its findings about Napat concern his time as foreign minister.
One case concerned Han Hans, a Chinese national whom Napat appointed as a special envoy for trade and investment to Australia, New Zealand and Singapore in January 2023. The committee said Han collected a diplomatic passport from Napat a week later, although special envoys were not then eligible and the chief protocol officer was authorized to distribute passports.
The report said Han was arrested in China on 22 August 2023, after traveling on the passport, and was later prosecuted and sentenced. It did not specify the charges.
The committee also found that amendments to the Passport Act improperly bypassed the Council of Ministers, or cabinet, and breached international conventions on diplomatic missions and officers and constitutional provisions concerning public office holders and dual citizens.
During a visit to the passport office, committee members found the premises and passport-stock storage unsuitable and inadequately secured. The report said there were no cameras inside or outside the building.
Vanuatu’s Citizenship Office and Commission says it processes citizenship applications and issues citizenship certificates, while the Foreign Affairs Ministry processes, approves and delivers diplomatic passports; the citizenship bodies do not issue passports. Citizenship-by-investment programs have their own regulations.
The committee recommended holding officials accountable, canceling unlawful citizenships and passports, and overhauling internal security controls. Vanuatu began canceling unlawful citizenships and passports in 2025.
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