Non-issuance of new passports
Tuesday, 13 May 2014
It is sad that the government failed to issue a single machine-readable passport (MRP) from 33 regional passport offices in the last six months due to non-cooperation of a Malaysian company. It is hampering our manpower export as many people are unable to go abroad as they are not getting their passports due to the glitch. Getting a passport is very tedious affair in our country. The applicants are harassed in the name of police verification and no police verification is complete if the applicants don't grease the palm of the verifiers.
The government needs to simplify the process of issuing passports and as the Malaysian company is failing to supply passport, it should award the contract to other companies. If we have multiple suppliers, supply channel will be steady. Many Bangladeshis have been working abroad with old analogue passports. They are in a dilemma as they have to switch to MRP passport soon. Otherwise, they will have to come back home leaving their jobs there. I hope the government will take action and remove this stalemate so that the crisis of passport is solved.
Sajjad Hossain
Gulshan, Dhaka