Act fast on MRP

The government yesterday issued a seven-day ultimatum to IRIS Corporation Berhad to start enrolling Bangladeshi expatriates in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Malaysia in full swing for providing them with machine readable passports (MRPs) by November 24.

The Malaysian company has also been asked to increase its MRP service centres in the three countries, where around 44 lakh Bangladeshis live, and operationalise them within a week.

Otherwise, the IRIS may lose its contract and may have to pay "a hefty compensation", warned Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain at a meeting of the advisory committee on the MRP at Probashi Kalayan Bhaban in the capital.

According to meeting sources, he also said he wanted to see immediate progress in the MRP issuance process.

The IRIS officials at the meeting promised to meet the deadline, sources said.

Last year, the company was awarded three contracts to enrol expatriates in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Malaysia by the November 24 deadline set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to eliminate the use of non-MRPs and replace those with MRPs.

However, the IRIS has been very slow in its job. Around a million expatriates have so far been given the MRPs and the IRIS contributed to only 62,000 of them, according to ministry sources.

"The MRP is now a national issue for us. If we can't provide the MRPs for all our expatriates by November, they might become illegal [after the deadline]," Mosharraf told reporters after the meeting.

"From March 25 onwards at least 5,000 expatriates will be enrolled every day in Saudi Arabia," he said, adding around 22 lakh Bangladeshis are yet to get the MRPs there. Approximately 26 lakh Bangladeshis are believed to be working in the Gulf country.

This way, some 12 lakh expatriates in Saudi Arabia will get the MRPs, he said.

Asked what would happen to the other 10 lakh, the minister did not say anything clearly.

However, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister's Office Abul Kalam Azad, who attended the meeting, said the government would try to issue "more than 5,000 MRPs a day". These additional passports will be given to the rest.

Mosharraf said the IRIS has agreed to speed up its activities and the Bangladesh missions would do the same in this regard.

"The IRIS and our foreign missions will identify the barriers and work together to remove them to ensure enrolment for issuing the MRPs," he added.

Currently, the IRIS has eight application centres and 10 mobile teams for the enrolment process in Saudi Arabia.

To accelerate the enrolment activities, it was decided in the meeting that the number of application centres will be increased to 20 and mobile teams to 30.

In Malaysia, three more centres will be set up in addition to the existing six to expedite the process.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, Expatriates' Welfare Secretary Khandker Md Iftekhar Haider, Director General of the Department of Immigration and Passport NM Zeaul Alam and other high-ups of the government offices concerned attended the meeting.