Editorial
Migrant Bangladeshis caught in MRP trouble
Government must explain passport position to authorities abroad
THE United Arab Emirates authorities are reportedly refusing to issue visas to Bangladeshi workers who do not have machine readable passports (MRPs). If indeed the UAE authorities stick to their decision, it will have a very negative effect not only on the future of our migrant workers but also on the country as a whole. Just why that might be has to do with the fact that annually 2.5 lakh Bangladeshi workers are employed in the UAE, which makes the emirates the largest provider of jobs to migrant Bangladeshis. A refusal, therefore, to issue visas to those holding manually prepared passports or to insist that they replace such passports with MRPs will put all of us in a quandary. Fortunately, the Bangladesh ambassador to the UAE has held out the assurance that his mission will explain to the UAE government the details of the MRP programme as it exists in Bangladesh at present.
That brings us to the core issue here. It is quite probable that the UAE authorities are in a sort of dilemma with some workers holding MRPs and others possessing old manually prepared passports. Moreover, with the international civil aviation authorities stipulating a few years ago that all countries provide their citizens with machine readable passports by April 1 this year, a question must have arisen in the UAE about the dual nature of Bangladeshi passports as it might in other countries. Such confusion, we must admit, would not have been there had the Bangladesh government undertaken the job of keeping the governments of countries employing Bangladeshi workers in particular and other governments in general informed about the progress in the preparation of MRPs. There is no question that by April this year MRPs for everyone would not have been possible. And the fact remains that the government has decided what it must do regarding new passport applicants and those whose old passports yet have a long time before expiry. But was the position made known to foreign governments, especially in the Middle East where we have the bulk of our migrant workers?
Before the first MRPs were prepared, the government made three moves about the old passports, each move superseding the other. It was first said that those holding old passports would be given MRPs in a year's time. That period was then changed to two and eventually three years. The responsibility of the Bangladesh government, especially of the Foreign Office and the manpower ministry, should have been to communicate officially with overseas governments spelling out the details of the MRP programme. Such action would have staved off the problems that our workers today face in the UAE.
We expect the government to take up the matter with the UAE in right earnest, considering the economic aspects of the issue. And lest Bangladeshis run into problems in other countries over the manually prepared passports they yet hold, let the government keep the authorities of those countries posted on the situation. Let not bureaucratic sloth or incompetence come in the way of Bangladeshis' travels abroad.
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