Streamlining passport offices
Wednesday, 8 August 2007
Abdul Ehsan
PASSPORT is not only an ordinary travel document in the context of Bangladesh that citizens of many countries obtain with the utmost ease. From applying for a passport to getting one ultimately, Bangladeshis without connections at the right places or who are unwilling to readily part with 'speed money' at different desks in the passport offices, the process can be a very exasperating and time consuming affair.
A passport that can be processed and made available in days, is deliberately delayed. First of all, the passport seekers may find a ring of resistance from the officials in getting necessary forms and advice. It is indicated to them, often covertly, that the wise thing to do is to negotiate everything with the unofficial brokers who wait outside. Thus, the helpless people are required to buy forms which are supposed to be freely distributed. Then, they have to make high payments to these brokers for advancing of their applications inside the office. Even after getting their passports after a long wait and spending unduly a large sum of money, sometimes they are provided with fake passports which are only detected at departure counters of airports causing them great distresses and humiliations.
The costs of delays in getting passports or their forgeries can cause very great loss to the individual and the economy. A record number of Bangladeshis are working abroad and many more are aspiring for overseas jobs. The earnings of these people and their remittances play a very significant role in the country's economy and in the upkeep of families they leave behind and also in reducing the huge unemployment problem at home. When the overseas job seekers are making such a commendable contribution to the economy, it would be fair that they should be duly facilitated in getting their passports quickly. Thus, one is dismayed to read frequent reports about individuals having failed to travel to their work destinations abroad because of not getting their passports in time or being refused departure or entry with fake passports. Their job contracts are sometimes cancelled for this reason and the job seekers face harassments and detrimental costs at some other ways in their work stations.
Passports are also sought quickly by patients for swift travel abroad for treatment. The same is the need on the part of business people and students. But they continue to suffer from the impediments, corruption and bureaucracies in the passport offices. A recent report in a vernacular daily stated that passport seekers have to stand in a line in front of the regional passport office in Comilla from early evening until the office opens next morning to receive application forms. Many of them have to go away empty handed without forms as they are told that the office has run out of forms. Even selling a place in the queue has developed there as a business. The other corruptions and deplorable service in that passport office are more painful. But the passport office in Comilla is no exception; it is representative of passport offices throughout the country. Streamlining the passport offices, therefore, is an acutely felt necessity. The same must be done not only to reduce or do away with individual sufferings but also for improvements in the working of passport offices, so important from the perspective of the national economy that depends critically on the remittances of expatriate workers.
PASSPORT is not only an ordinary travel document in the context of Bangladesh that citizens of many countries obtain with the utmost ease. From applying for a passport to getting one ultimately, Bangladeshis without connections at the right places or who are unwilling to readily part with 'speed money' at different desks in the passport offices, the process can be a very exasperating and time consuming affair.
A passport that can be processed and made available in days, is deliberately delayed. First of all, the passport seekers may find a ring of resistance from the officials in getting necessary forms and advice. It is indicated to them, often covertly, that the wise thing to do is to negotiate everything with the unofficial brokers who wait outside. Thus, the helpless people are required to buy forms which are supposed to be freely distributed. Then, they have to make high payments to these brokers for advancing of their applications inside the office. Even after getting their passports after a long wait and spending unduly a large sum of money, sometimes they are provided with fake passports which are only detected at departure counters of airports causing them great distresses and humiliations.
The costs of delays in getting passports or their forgeries can cause very great loss to the individual and the economy. A record number of Bangladeshis are working abroad and many more are aspiring for overseas jobs. The earnings of these people and their remittances play a very significant role in the country's economy and in the upkeep of families they leave behind and also in reducing the huge unemployment problem at home. When the overseas job seekers are making such a commendable contribution to the economy, it would be fair that they should be duly facilitated in getting their passports quickly. Thus, one is dismayed to read frequent reports about individuals having failed to travel to their work destinations abroad because of not getting their passports in time or being refused departure or entry with fake passports. Their job contracts are sometimes cancelled for this reason and the job seekers face harassments and detrimental costs at some other ways in their work stations.
Passports are also sought quickly by patients for swift travel abroad for treatment. The same is the need on the part of business people and students. But they continue to suffer from the impediments, corruption and bureaucracies in the passport offices. A recent report in a vernacular daily stated that passport seekers have to stand in a line in front of the regional passport office in Comilla from early evening until the office opens next morning to receive application forms. Many of them have to go away empty handed without forms as they are told that the office has run out of forms. Even selling a place in the queue has developed there as a business. The other corruptions and deplorable service in that passport office are more painful. But the passport office in Comilla is no exception; it is representative of passport offices throughout the country. Streamlining the passport offices, therefore, is an acutely felt necessity. The same must be done not only to reduce or do away with individual sufferings but also for improvements in the working of passport offices, so important from the perspective of the national economy that depends critically on the remittances of expatriate workers.