The government will provide machine readable passports to 15 lakh Bangladeshi expatriates in Saudi Arabia at an additional fee of $9, a lower rate than that charged in Malaysia or the United Arab Emirates before the use of regular passports is phased out in November next year.
The cabinet committee on public purchase at a meeting yesterday approved a proposal put forward by the Home Ministry to provide MRPs to Bangladeshi expatriates living in Saudi Arabia. Finance Minister AMA Muhith chaired the meeting.
After the meeting, the finance minister told reporters that the cost of delivery of passports was raised earlier because they did not know how much it would cost for delivery of machine readable passports to Bangladeshi expatriates living in Malaysia or the United Arab Emirates.
He said the cabinet committee had now fixed the fee for delivery of passports at $9 which is lower than the delivery cost set earlier.
The government took a decision to provide MRPs to Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia and the UAE with the help of an outsourcing company.
In Malaysia, the service charge is $18 per MRP while $13 in the UAE apart from normal fees.
Bangladeshi expatriates living in Saudi Arabia will have to pay extra $9 or over Tk3,000 (for normal processing) or Tk6,000 (for speedy processing) as delivery charge to get MRPs sent to their addresses by the Bangladesh embassy in KSA.
A senior official of the Home Ministry said 90% of Bangladeshi expatriates especially those living in the Middle East countries do not have machine readable passports. Bangladesh might miss the deadline for delivery of passports if the civil aviation authority did not speed up the process, he added.
Labour secretaries of Bangladesh missions in 21 countries had recently expressed concern over the slow progress in converting passports and urged the government to expedite the process.
As per the ministry’s proposal, a foreign company would provide MRPs to Bangladeshi expatriates living in Saudi Arabia. The government had already started home delivery of MRPs to 6 lakh Bangladeshi expatriates living in Malaysia as regular passport holders might face problems from November 2015.