Regularisation of Bangladeshi Workers in Malaysia
Govt to issue over 3 lakh hand-written passports
Fearing complex procedures of tender process, the government has finally decided to issue hand-written passports to help regularisation of over three lakh Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia.
However, it decided that the handwritten passports will be replaced by the machine-readable passports (MRPs) by March 31, 2015.
The decision was taken at an inter-ministerial meeting chaired by Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain at his ministry on Wednesday.
The minister opted for hand-written passports when MRP Project Director (PD) Brig Gen Refayetullah proposed outsourcing MRPs would make the job easy, said officials who were present at the meeting.
However, the minister told the meeting that Bangladesh high commission in Kuala Lumpur presently issues both hand-written and MRPs.
As per its present capacity, it is not possible for the mission to issue more than 200 MRPs, Khandker Mosharraf said.
Moreover, the minister said awarding the job to a particular company without tender will raise questions and complexities.
So, handwritten passports should be issued to the migrants alongside the process of outsourcing MRPs, the minister told the meeting.
Officials from the ministries of home, foreign affairs, passport department were also present at the meeting.
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