Heading nowhere

The government has failed to manage Malaysian company IRIS, which has put in jeopardy the future of 30 lakh Bangladeshi expatriates in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Malaysia.

Out of about 45 lakh expatriates in the three countries, nearly 15 lakh got their machine-readable passports (MRPs). IRIS Corporation Berhad's contribution in enrolling the Bangladeshis for MRPs was just 1.5 lakh. The rest was done through government channels, said passport officials.

IRIS was awarded three contracts last year for giving MRPs to expatriates in those countries but the company failed to express track the job even in the face of looming crisis.

Since March the government had been asking the company to speed up enrolling expatriates so that all the old passport holders in the countries could be given MRPs.

The old passports would be phased out on November 24, an International Civil Aviation Organisation set deadline. After the date, many countries may not accept old passports and Bangladeshi expatriates could lose jobs and face deportation.

Ministers and senior officials had held meetings with IRIS people and set enrolment targets, which the company failed to achieve.

The firm's slow pace in enrolling expatriates for MRPs made it clear that a large number of Bangladeshis living abroad would not have MRPs after the deadline.

Against this backdrop, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took up the issue in February and engaged Principal Secretary to Prime Minister's Office Abul Kalam Azad.

Azad formed a taskforce comprising officials of home, foreign, LGRD and expatriate welfare ministries, the Department of Immigration and Passport (DIP) and MRP project management to provide technical support to IRIS and expedite MRP issuance.

Considering the fate of the expatriates, whose foreign exchange is the backbone of the country's economy, the prime minister also formed an advisory committee headed by Expatriate Welfare Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain to monitor the overall progress of MRP processing.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, and foreign, home, expatriate welfare, LGRD, and civil aviation secretaries were included in the committee as members.

Both the committee and the taskforce sat several times and asked IRIS officials for faster enrolment in the three countries.

As IRIS failed to perform, the advisory committee on March 19 set targets for enrolment but the company showed very poor progress.

The target was 9,000 a day in Saudi Arabia and 5,000 a day in Malaysia and the UAE each. IRIS could only do 600 to 900 a day in Saudi Arabia, about 125 in the UAE and just 70 a day in Malaysia.

The committee on April 9 set a one-month deadline for IRIS to fulfil the targets, threatening it with cancellation of its contracts and heftily fines.

Even then the company did not pick up the pace.

The deadline expired on May 8 but the advisory committee is yet to sit or decide on the IRIS and the MRP issue.

A frustrated Mosharraf told The Daily Star last Sunday, "I was made coordinator of the committee to see progress of the company's performance. I am no longer with it."

He said the foreign and home ministries would now look into the matter.

State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, who had been defending IRIS despite its widespread irregularities and violation of contracts, refused to talk about IRIS.

When asked what his ministry would do with the company when it repeatedly failed to perform, he condemned The Daily Star for going after IRIS.

In November last year, he had told The Daily Star that nothing could be done without IRIS. The Daily Star had then run an in-depth report with facts and figures exposing the Malaysian company's poor performance, violation of contracts and irregularities, and that IRIS failure would put a large number of expatriates in trouble.

The taskforce had its last meeting at the PMO on May 7 and expressed frustration over IRIS not doing its job.

Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque, quoting ambassadors in the three countries, said the government could not depend on IRIS any more since the company chose inconvenient locations for setting up enrolment centres, deployed unprofessional employees, and allegedly overcharged the expatriates.

The principal secretary said IRIS did not even listen to directives of foreign ministry officials, which was sad. Yet, he had asked IRIS to come up with a detailed plan within 7 days on how to issue MRPs to all the expatriates before the deadline.

IRIS did not bother to deliver a plan either.

DIP's Director General NM Zeaul Alam had no clear answer when he was asked why the authorities could not be tough on a foreign company even after it had put the country in trouble.

Now the government has only one option, increase capacity of its missions and issue as much MRPs as possible for the expatriates.

Most members in the committee and the taskforce know about IRIS and the MRP issue but never talked about actions against the company.

"Some home ministry and MRP project management officials, who enjoy blessings from influential people in the government, defend IRIS for various benefits. They are the strength of the firm and no one speaks against it," said a foreign ministry official, seeking anonymity.