Expats won't face problem: Kamal

Though the International Civil Aviation Organisation's deadline for terminating the use of handwritten passports expired yesterday, the expatriate Bangladeshis, yet to get machine readable passport (MRPs), would not face any problems, claimed the government.

“People need not worry as they can obtain the MRPs in five to seven days after their applications,” Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told The Daily Star yesterday.

“We thought that the ICAO deadline might be extended. Even if it has not been extended yet, our people [expatriate Bangladeshis] will not face any problem,” he said.

The government started issuing the MRPs from 2010. However, over 11 lakh expatriates are yet to get them even though many paid fees and service charges several months ago.

Asked whether the government had contacted the ICAO for extension of the deadline, the home minister said he did not know anything in this regard.

Kamal also contradicted the foreign  minister in regard to the number of expatriate Bangladeshis who are yet to get the new passports.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali on Thursday told parliament that over 11 lakh expatriates had not yet got the MRPs.

The Department of Immigration and Passports (DIP) could not specify the exact number of such expatriates, but its Director General Zeaul Alam told reporters that the number would not be more than 2.5 lakh.

The home minister too relied on the DIP data and claimed, “Our figure is correct.”

However, officials at different Bangladesh missions abroad said the DIP estimate was incorrect.

At least three to four lakh expatriates in Saudi Arabia, around one lakh in the United Arab Emirates, around one or two lakh in Malaysia and several lakhs in some other countries did not get the MRPs, according to the officials.

Without the MRPs, the expatriates would face trouble in renewing their work permits and getting work visas. They might even lose their jobs and face deportation.

The civil aviation and tourism ministry on several occasions urged the home ministry to apply to the ICAO for extending time for the Bangladeshis but the home minister opposed it, said a senior official at the civil aviation ministry.

“He [the minister] was confident that they would be able to complete the job before the deadline,” he said, seeking anonymity.

The home ministry and the DIP last year appointed an inexperienced and incompetent outsourcing company, IRIS Corporation Bhd, to enrol expatriates in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Malaysia for the MRPs.

The company enrolled only around 2 lakh expatriates in the three countries but did not distribute around 50,000 MRPs in Saudi Arabia and several thousand more in the other two countries even though the Bangladeshis had paid fees and service charge.

Neither the DIP nor the home ministry took any action against the IRIS for its failure.