Home ministry official cites five reasons why 200,000 expatriates are not collecting their MRPs

Over 200,000 expatriate Bangladeshi workers have not yet switched over to machine-readable passports (MRPs), yet handwritten ones are said to be obsolete as of Wednesday.

The home ministry’s Additional Secretary Mostofa Kamal Uddin identified five reasons for expatriates’ reluctance to opt for MRPs.

One is that the name mentioned in the no-objection certificate differs from the name in the passport. Other frequent reasons are discrepancy in the age, handing over of passports to employers in Arab countries, discarding of passports after expiry of visa, and lack of awareness.

According to a decision made by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), from Wednesday only MRPs will be accepted at airports across the world.

Following the decision, the Department of Immigration and Passport started preparing and issuing MRPs from Apr 1, 2010.

Mostofa Kamal Uddin told bdnews24.com that out of 12.5 million citizens who have switched over to MRPs so far, 2.31 million are expatriates.

He said many of them went abroad with false names and incorrect dates of birth in their passports.

“If those persons now apply for MRPs, they will have to give fingerprints and that will expose the discrepancies in names, age and other information they provided while acquiring handwritten passports. They are now afraid to obtain MRPs.”

“There is another group that cannot opt for MRPs. Their passports are kept in the custody of their employers. Many employers keep the passports of their employees to stop them from seeking employment elsewhere,” Kamal Uddin said.

“There is another section of expatriates who have discarded their passports after expiry of their visa. This group naturally is not interested in switching over to MRPs.”

Then there are those whose handwritten passports are valid until 2018. They wanted to apply for new passports only after returning to the country, the additional secretary pointed out.

He also informed that while, according to the new rules, no one can now leave Bangladesh without MRPs, there is no such restriction for those returning home.

Expatriates can get their MRPs issued from Bangladesh embassies.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal also told reporters on Tuesday that Bangladeshis abroad could get their MRPs issued in the embassies within seven days.

Advising those who are yet to get their MRPs not to panic, he said they could return home on presenting their travel permit forms at the embassies.

Claiming that there was no complaint over the issuance of MRPs, the minister said, “There are 48 offices in 64 districts set up for the purpose. Apart from that, there are 60 such offices abroad. After collecting data from these offices, they are sent to Agargaon.”

“At Agargaon we can prepare 20,000 passports every day.”