JEDDAH, 25 December 2006 — A washing machine can stop you from traveling abroad unless you are careful about what you throw into it. A Saudi family learned this bitter lesson when their application to issue new passports was temporarily rejected, the daily Okaz reported yesterday. They were forced to postpone their travel plans for two years after which they would be eligible for new travel documents. They had applied for new passports after the original passports were damaged when they washed them inadvertently along with their travel clothes. When they applied for new passports, the officials told them, after learning that their negligence was the cause of the loss of the original ones, that they would have to wait two years for the new ones. The department wants to emphasize to the citizens that they should take great care of their vital travel documents.
