For several years, there has been an agreement on the mutual recognition of driving licenses between Benin and Belgium, thus allowing a conversion of licenses. However, in recent years, the format of the Beninese permit has changed, going from a plastic document to a biometric bank card type card.
In order to preserve this agreement and allow the Belgian police database to be updated, this format change should be communicated to the Belgian authorities, accompanied by a specimen of the new document by the Beninese authorities.
despite the harm that this diplomatic and administrative inertia of the Beninese authorities represents for the Beninese diaspora, despite the multiple cries of heart from diaspora associations on social networks and in the media,
despite the numerous requests for regularization addressed to the Beninese authorities by their Belgian counterparts, which remained unanswered.
Cotonou is therefore incapable of sending a simple diplomatic letter with a specimen, thus embarrassing hundreds of Beninese men and women. Their hard-won driving licenses are now nothing more than a worthless piece of paper in Belgium, simply because, somewhere in Cotonou, in a quiet office, someone is incapable of doing their job, either by incompetence or negligence.
Currently, hundreds of young students and honest citizens of the diaspora are just waiting for their permits to be converted in order to land a student job to meet their needs and thus continue their studies with complete peace of mind, or simply to be able to move around. freely.
Modernization is supposed to make life easier for citizens, not the other way around. When you can't improve something, you don't destroy it. Hear our cries and preserve this international agreement
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Belgium
