Machine readable passports for expats

Amid the endless job-related uncertainties, the expatriate Bangladeshi workers are now encountering the most daunting of challenges in the form of procuring machine readable passports (MRPs). In their desperate bid to obtain MRPs within the deadline of November 24 this year, more than three million expatriate Bangladeshis are sensing a stupendous crisis not of their own making and, regretfully, beyond their control.
The deadline set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) for validity of hand-written manual passports was well publicised. The local media has been reminding the authorities time and again, especially, the high importance of completing the job well within the timeframe in order that the plight of migrant workers, the most vulnerable group to be hit hard in the absence of  MRPs, are salvaged. As things stand now, it looks the authorities were far from taking the message seriously. All they did was outsource the job to a Malaysian firm which reportedly has performed miserably. The worst that knocks on the door is that immigration officials all over the world would refuse to entertain the manual passports of the migrant workers from November 25 onwards. The fallout is clearly two-fold. Those carrying the old passports would first lose their jobs followed by the inevitable deportation. Reports say that around three million migrant workers may end up as the worst victims.
According to the expatriates welfare and overseas employment ministry, an estimated 6.0 million workers live abroad, most of them in the Middle-East. Of them, 2.0 million workers have received MRPs. Although there are more than seven months left for the deadline to expire, the concerned quarters are worried that the pace at which the MRPs are currently being issued can at best deliver only one-fourth of the gigantic task left. Given the state of things, it is estimated that MRPs for an astounding three million workers might not be served within the deadline. In Saudi Arabia alone, the largest concentration of Bangladeshi migrant workers, more than two million expats are yet to get MRPs. Besides, to ride out the crisis, the government has to provide 60,000 MRPs a month to workers in the UAE and 55,000 in Malaysia so that all Bangladeshi expatriates there have MRPs before the deadline.
 No doubt, issuance of MRPs is a national issue at the moment. The expat minister himself termed it so the other day recognising the urgency of completing the task within time. But it seems the failure of speeding up MRP issuance is now being squarely put on the Malaysian firm, which most observers consider too belated to repair the damage already done. All the government has to do now is put all possible resources, including devising methods of quick issuance of MRPs. Time is fast running out, and to avoid the calamitous consequences, there is no choice but to take up a crash programme involving more manpower in the overseas Bangladesh missions, supported adequately by skill and technology. This is no less a do or die situation.