The news that the government may not be able to meet the International Civil Aviation (ICAO)-set deadline to make machine-readable passports (MRPs) available to the Bangladeshi expatriate workers, is obviously a matter of grave concern for them. There exists widespread fear among many Bangladeshi workers and professionals, employed particularly in the Middle Eastern countries, that they might be forced to return home if they are not provided with MRPs within the ICAO deadline. Many missions are reportedly handicapped by shortage of necessary outsourcing facilities, workstations, funds etc., in their bid to replace the Bangladeshi migrant workers' manual passports with MRPs. The legal issues in some of the employing countries are also, according to a report published in this paper last Saturday, posing a problem.
The problems, encountered in the process of delivering the MRPs by the Bangladesh missions, are not the same in all the countries. The problems are more acute in the countries where the concentration of workers is relatively more. Obviously, the missions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) are under pressure. Their problem has been exacerbated by insufficient number of workstations that can accomplish the task of MRP delivery efficiently. Allegations have it that the authorities concerned in the two top-most destinations of Bangladeshi workers also do not have immediate plan to outsource the job of MRP delivery.
However, amidst the air of uncertainty, there is a ray of hope. The government, though belated, has taken up a project to expedite the process of MRP delivery to the migrant workers. Under the project, 19 workstations would be set up in the USA and the European Union (EU) countries and 36 workstations in the countries of Asia-Pacific and African countries at a cost of nearly 183 million. If workstations are set up without any further delay and necessary manpower is recruited on short-term basis, the deadline can still be met. There is no denying that many missions have very limited capacity, in terms of manpower and logistics. Unless their capacity is adequately strengthened, it would not be possible on their part to replace the workers' manual passports with MRPs in a good number of countries that have been employing Bangladeshi workers in large numbers.
But in what has always been a chronic problem for Bangladeshi government agencies is the slow progress in the implementation of programmes and projects that concerns people's welfare. The MRP delivery to the migrant workers is a case in point. The international agencies concerned for long have been asking the governments to make available MRPs to their nationals to help the latter pass through international airports with least hassles. Had the ministries of home and foreign affairs taken up programmes to raise capacities of the missions abroad in this connection, there would not have been any uncertainty over MRP distribution among the migrant workers. It is expected that the project, initiated of late, would be executed with all seriousness to remove worries among the migrant workers.
MRP delivery to migrant workers
FE Team | Published: January 04, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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