UNB, Dhaka :
Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Engineer Khandker Mosharraf Hossain on Thursday said the government will look for an alternative way if Malaysian Company Iris fails to do so in time.
“They (Iris JV) are not working accordingly. If they work in this manner, we’ll look for an alternative way,” he said voicing worry at the slow process in issuing Machine Readable Passport (MRP) to expatriate Bangladeshis.
The minister was talking to reporters after a meeting of Advisory Committee on Issuance of the MRP at Probashi Kalyan Bhaban in the capital.
Chaired by Khandker Mosharraf, the meeting was attended, among others, by Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, State Minister for Home Affairs Asaduzaman Khan and officials from Prime Minister’s Office and other concerned ministries.
The government employed Malaysian outsourcing company ‘IRIS’ to complete the procedure for providing MRPs to the Bangladeshis living in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and the UAE .
The meeting directed the Director General of Department of Immigration and Passport to form a monitoring committee as well as work out an action plan so that the expatriate Bangladeshis can get the MRPs in time.
The manual passport holders will not be allowed to travel to any country after the deadline of November 24, set by International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), making MRPs mandatory for all nationalities across the world.
In reply to a question whether the government would be able to issue MRPs within ICAO deadline, the minister said, “If not 100 percent possible, we would deliver MRPs to 95 percent expatriate Bangladeshis within the deadline under any circumstances. We are now working accordingly.”
Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Engineer Khandker Mosharraf Hossain on Thursday said the government will look for an alternative way if Malaysian Company Iris fails to do so in time.
“They (Iris JV) are not working accordingly. If they work in this manner, we’ll look for an alternative way,” he said voicing worry at the slow process in issuing Machine Readable Passport (MRP) to expatriate Bangladeshis.
The minister was talking to reporters after a meeting of Advisory Committee on Issuance of the MRP at Probashi Kalyan Bhaban in the capital.
Chaired by Khandker Mosharraf, the meeting was attended, among others, by Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, State Minister for Home Affairs Asaduzaman Khan and officials from Prime Minister’s Office and other concerned ministries.
The government employed Malaysian outsourcing company ‘IRIS’ to complete the procedure for providing MRPs to the Bangladeshis living in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and the UAE .
The meeting directed the Director General of Department of Immigration and Passport to form a monitoring committee as well as work out an action plan so that the expatriate Bangladeshis can get the MRPs in time.
The manual passport holders will not be allowed to travel to any country after the deadline of November 24, set by International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), making MRPs mandatory for all nationalities across the world.
In reply to a question whether the government would be able to issue MRPs within ICAO deadline, the minister said, “If not 100 percent possible, we would deliver MRPs to 95 percent expatriate Bangladeshis within the deadline under any circumstances. We are now working accordingly.”
