Anomalies, visa problems Ex-marine cadets seek PM’s intervention

FE Team | Published: December 27, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

FE Report
Former Marine Cadets in the country sought Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's intervention in checking irregularities and finding a solution to the existing visa-related problems of those aspiring to go abroad.
The graduates under the banner of 'Ex-cadets of Bangladesh Marine Academy' made the call at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) on Friday.
Ashraf Ibn Nur, a cadet of the 5th batch, told reporters that marines who aspire for job in the UAE, India, Singapore and EU countries mainly face visa-related complications, eventually losing a good opportunity to go abroad.
"A section of officials and staff had recruited ineligible marine officers in foreign ships by using forged certificates (COC and CDC), which was tarnishing the country's image aboard," he alleged.
The cadets demanded introduction of machine readable certificates and verification system to check the fraudulent activities.
The graduates while addressing the conference alleged that despite a number of cadets successfully graduating every year from one public and 17 private marine academies of the country there were no job opportunities in the local market.
Private marine academies also fail to offer any job to the graduates though the institutions claim 100 per cent job placement during admission.
The marine officers who managed to get jobs in renowned foreign companies failed to join their voyage because of visa-related issues, the speakers added.
The marine cadets demanded that the government form a visa academy to fix the ongoing problems immediately and identify the corrupt officials in the sector.
The cadets also demanded formation of a government-monitored maritime council and urged the authorities concerned to stop admission into all marine academies until jobs for unemployed ex-cadets were ensured.
They said cadets abroad add Tk 6.0 billion to the remittance inflow. If the government takes necessary actions, the amount will surely go up.
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