A taskforce comprising three ministries will be formed to provide smooth on-arrival visa services to foreigners, State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has said.
Published : 05 Jul 2015, 09:08 PM
He says the government will eventually move towards e-passport system.
“We had bitter experience in the past and there are some complexities as well,” he said at a roundtable in Dhaka on Sunday.
“A taskforce will be formed in coordination with the foreign, home and tourism ministries to ease on-arrival visas for foreigners at Bangladesh’s international airports,” Kamal said.
The taskforce, he said, would ease the complexities.
He identified security issue as the single main obstacle to the issuing of on-arrival visas.
“Many are overstaying their period,” the state minister said. “We have to discuss these issues and solve them.”
In his keynote paper, Bengal Tours owner Masud Hossain pointed out the visa system remained complex.
Several participants agreed and advocated a relaxation of the process.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam said the visa policy lacked ‘uniformity’.
“I think the time has come to reconsider the visa fee,” he said, emphasising security issues.
The government has announced to celebrate 2016 as the ‘Tourism Year’ to promote Bangladesh’s tourism sector.
“But we’ll have to consider security issues,” he said. “We won’t show leniency.”
In 2013 alone, law-enforcers arrested over 100 foreigners on various charges, mostly for their involvement in criminal activities. Many of them overstayed.
Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon said the government was pitching for making Bangladesh a ‘single tourism destination’.
He said necessary infrastructural development was needed for this.
“But security issues come up here,” he said. “The whole world is in panic over the IS.
“I believe non-resident Bangladeshis can pose more threat to security than a tourist can.”
An UK family of Bangladeshi origin, which visited the country in April, has been missing since May.
Police say they went to Istanbul on May 11 and did not return to the UK.
On Saturday, an unconfirmed Islamic State statement claimed the family of 12 had joined it.
Relatives of the family say they suspect the couple’s daughter may have persuaded them to join the militant organisation.