Shah Alam Nur :Still a large number of Bangladeshi expatriates are out of reach of machine-readable passports (MRPs) as the Bangladesh missions abroad have been facing serious difficulties over the issuance of the latest technology-based passports, official sources said.Earlier, the concerned ministries and organisations have been requested by the Bangladeshis working abroad to make sure that they get MRPs within the set November 24 deadline of last year. In recent times, countries across the world have stopped accepting the handwritten passport for the sake of implementation of the international aviation rules.Shahadat Hossain has lived in Malaysia for 14 years, and now he needs another renewal of his visa. But he is in fear of losing his job for delays in getting a new passport. Talking to The New Nation on Thursday, Shahadat Hossain, who landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) on Thursday, narrated the story of his failure to obtain an MRP from the Bangladesh Mission in Kuala Lumpur. Shahadat, an inhabitant of Tangail district, said three months ago he had applied to the mission office for MRP but did not get it yet.”Several times I also wanted help from the government officers in Malaysia but they didn’t get any response from them as the MRP project is going on very slowly,” he said.The Bangladeshi migrant workers have been going under the threat of losing jobs because of lack of MRPs, which urgently needed for visa issuance.Another expatriate Mohammad Abdullah, who hailed from Kishoreganj district, also said at the airport that he has lived in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) for 7 years. He said durations of visas of many Bangladeshis have been over but for lack of MRPs they cannot apply for visa extension.Although MRP is now mandatory for visa renewal, there is no way to get an MRP on an urgent basis, he said.Fardous Kamal, who has lived in the KSA for 10 years, said, “Now I don’t have any way without MRP as the handwritten passport cannot guarantee hassle-free passage or staying abroad.” He pointed out that under the set international aviation rules, after the November 24 last year the KSA government doesn’t accept handwritten passports. “But the Bangladesh mission totally failed to provide that.”He feared that if the Bangladeshi migrant workers could not show MRPs, a large number of them would lose their jobs for want of extended ‘akama’ or work permit.According to the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), there are 9 million Bangladeshi migrants in different countries, including about 2.6 million in the KSA, 2.3 million in UAE and over 0.7 million in Malaysia.The gulf countries, including KSA and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), are the largest job markets for the Bangladeshi workers and so remittance flow into the country depends significantly on the issuance of MRPs.Four years ago, the government had taken an initiative to provide MRPs to all migrant workers. But, to date, only a little number of migrants has got the latest mandatory requirement for them.With the existing capacity the authorities now could complete procedures for only 13,000 a day to fulfill the MRP demand from local and migrant workers while it needs to process a minimum of 22,000 applications to meet the deadline.Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment sources said the Bangladesh mission in Riyadh at present can handle 700 applications a day for converting the handwritten passports into machine-readable ones while it needs to process a minimum of 8,000 to 10,000 to meet the deadline.An official of the Ministry of Expatriate said for providing MRPs to the Bangladeshi workers they have taken some initiatives. He noted that the MRP project is under the Ministry of Home Affairs, so that ministry could say why the project is proceeding so slowly.” “To provide MRPs to all migrant workers the Ministry of Expatriate is now jointly working with the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” he said.The official said for the lack of adequate manpower and machinery the MRP project is going slow.
