Fund constraint delays machine readable passport project
Mahmuda Shaolin | Saturday, 16 August 2008
Uncertainty looms large over floating an international tender for introduction of machine readable passports (MRPs) due mainly to delay in allocation of a Tk 20 million fund by the finance ministry.
The department of immigration and passport (DIP) sent a proposal to the finance ministry through the ministry of home affairs in March last requesting for a fund of Tk 20 million to help introduce the MRPs but DIP is yet to get any response from the authorities concerned, sources said.
"We've sent a proposal to the ministry of home affairs in March 10 last for the fund but so far we have not received any response," DIP Director General (DG) Abdur Rob Howlader told the FE.
As per the decision of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), all countries, including Bangladesh, must replace their manually processed passports with MRPs by April 2010. Manually processed passports will become obsolete after 2010 and such passports would no more be acceptable to immigration authorities across the world, ICAO said.
"If the authorities continue to make delay in allocation of fund there is very much possibility of failing to meet the ICAO's deadline. As a result, many countries will simply not allow Bangladeshi travellers after 2010," said a DIP official.
The DG said DIP has already taken an MRP project and if the fund is allocated the DIP will be able to invite international tender by July next year for introduction of MRP.
"We've already appointed a 'Project Director' to operate the MRP project," the DIP DG added. A consultant is expected to be appointed soon for implementation of the MRP project.
Recently, the issue was discussed in an inter-ministerial meeting with Home Adviser MA Matin in the chair. The meeting reviewed the overall situation of the MRP and decided to go ahead with the MRP project to meet the ICAO's deadline.
"We've got a proposal from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) for the introduction of MRP. The DIP has also given a letter to the IOM requesting it to review our country's rules and regulations and to settle some of the technical issues for the MRP," Mr. Howlader said.
He said the MRP would be designed in such a way that it would lessen hassles and speed up the process and delivery of passport.
At present, an applicant has to wait from a week to over a month to get a passport, depending on the amount of money one pays for services.
"The MRP will ease the processing time. It'll replace the age-old manual system, which is not error-free, costly and time-consuming. The MRP is guaranteed to be error-free," the DIP DG said.
Mr. Howlader said the MRP would meet all international standards as instructed by the ICAO and as a result no country would be able to harass Bangladeshi travellers including workers or to impound the manually processed passports on any grounds.
"Bangladesh nationals carry passports processed manually using primitive technologies, which often cause unwarranted hassles for them at overseas airports," said another DIP official.
Machine readable passports bear a zone where some of the information otherwise written in textual form as strings of alphanumeric characters, are printed in a manner suitable for optical character recognition.
Most of the countries have already introduced MRP or biometric passports to prevent smuggling and cross-country terrorist operations.
In 2007, the DIP earned Tk 5.76 billion through issuing nearly 1.8 million passports. It has already issued 1.2 million passports until June 2008 and earned Tk 3.26 billion.
The department of immigration and passport (DIP) sent a proposal to the finance ministry through the ministry of home affairs in March last requesting for a fund of Tk 20 million to help introduce the MRPs but DIP is yet to get any response from the authorities concerned, sources said.
"We've sent a proposal to the ministry of home affairs in March 10 last for the fund but so far we have not received any response," DIP Director General (DG) Abdur Rob Howlader told the FE.
As per the decision of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), all countries, including Bangladesh, must replace their manually processed passports with MRPs by April 2010. Manually processed passports will become obsolete after 2010 and such passports would no more be acceptable to immigration authorities across the world, ICAO said.
"If the authorities continue to make delay in allocation of fund there is very much possibility of failing to meet the ICAO's deadline. As a result, many countries will simply not allow Bangladeshi travellers after 2010," said a DIP official.
The DG said DIP has already taken an MRP project and if the fund is allocated the DIP will be able to invite international tender by July next year for introduction of MRP.
"We've already appointed a 'Project Director' to operate the MRP project," the DIP DG added. A consultant is expected to be appointed soon for implementation of the MRP project.
Recently, the issue was discussed in an inter-ministerial meeting with Home Adviser MA Matin in the chair. The meeting reviewed the overall situation of the MRP and decided to go ahead with the MRP project to meet the ICAO's deadline.
"We've got a proposal from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) for the introduction of MRP. The DIP has also given a letter to the IOM requesting it to review our country's rules and regulations and to settle some of the technical issues for the MRP," Mr. Howlader said.
He said the MRP would be designed in such a way that it would lessen hassles and speed up the process and delivery of passport.
At present, an applicant has to wait from a week to over a month to get a passport, depending on the amount of money one pays for services.
"The MRP will ease the processing time. It'll replace the age-old manual system, which is not error-free, costly and time-consuming. The MRP is guaranteed to be error-free," the DIP DG said.
Mr. Howlader said the MRP would meet all international standards as instructed by the ICAO and as a result no country would be able to harass Bangladeshi travellers including workers or to impound the manually processed passports on any grounds.
"Bangladesh nationals carry passports processed manually using primitive technologies, which often cause unwarranted hassles for them at overseas airports," said another DIP official.
Machine readable passports bear a zone where some of the information otherwise written in textual form as strings of alphanumeric characters, are printed in a manner suitable for optical character recognition.
Most of the countries have already introduced MRP or biometric passports to prevent smuggling and cross-country terrorist operations.
In 2007, the DIP earned Tk 5.76 billion through issuing nearly 1.8 million passports. It has already issued 1.2 million passports until June 2008 and earned Tk 3.26 billion.