Govt faces huge challenge over MRP for expats

The government is facing a major challenge in its attempts to provide machine-readable passports (MRPs) to about nine million expatriates by November.

To meet the deadline, the government decided to send a “mobile team”, in countries with much Bangladeshi population, Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Khandkar Mosharraf Hossain said in Parliament on Tuesday.

Replying to a supplementary question, he said if the MRPs were not handed over to the expatriates by November, their citizenship would become invalid.

“It is a big challenge to give MRPs to about nine million expatriates within such a short period,” he said.

He said efforts were on to find a solution to the challenge in consultation with the foreign ministry.

After discussing the issue with the ministry it was decided that a ‘crash programme’ would be initiated, he said.

“To get MRP, expatriates won't have to go to embassies. Mobile teams have been sent with cameras and computers to the Bangladeshi-inhabited areas,” he informed Parliament.

The entire process was outsourced so that it could be implemented within the stipulated time frame, he added.

In reply to another supplementary question, the minister expressed hope that the “issue will be resolved” by November.