TIB: 3 in every 4 new passport applicants harassed by police

More than three-quarters of all new passport applicants between September 2016 and May 2017 faced police harassment or were forced to pay bribes to get police clearance, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has claimed. According to a TIB report, while most of the new passport applicants complained about facing irregularities and corruption at different stages of the application process, 76.2% were harassed by police during the verification process alone. In order to get police clearance, at least 75.3% of applicants were forced to pay a bribe which amounted to Tk797 per applicant on average.

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Police verification of information is required for first-time passport applicants and is conducted by the Special Branch (SB) of police. Md Shahnur Rahman, TIB's programme manager for research and policy, presented the survey findings at the TIB headquarters in Dhanmondi, Dhaka on Monday. The survey was conducted among 1,453 new applicants at 26 out of 67 regional passport offices around the country. During the survey, TIB found that there is a lack of professionalism and accountability on police's part when it comes to clearance for passport, which is the main reason behind such rampant corruption in passport services. During the verification process, police extort applicants by threatening to write reports saying the applicants have militant ties or are linked with specific political parties.   Transparency International Bangladesh officials and stakeholders on August 21, 2017, organises a press conference to present findings of a survey findings the global watchdog's Bangladesh chapter headquarters in Dhanmondi, Dhaka Dhaka TribuneFurthermore, instead of going to the applicants' residences for verification, police ask the applicants to meet them at the police stations or the tea stalls nearby, whichever is convenient for the police officials. Due to this situation, to avoid the police harassment, 5.7% of the survey respondents said they applied for their passports through brokers, which is illegal. Speaking at the presentation, TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said there was a ring of criminals who were harassing the passport seekers: the SB officials, the officials of the Department of Immigration and Passports (DIP), attestation officers, and brokers. “To simplify the application process and save the applicants from this harassment, the process of attestation and police verification should be suspended,” he said. “Instead, the DIP can use the information stored in the applicants' Smart National ID (NID) cards.” However, the TIB executive director said while the DIP might want to suspend the police verification process, police did not want it.

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The applicants who took part in the survey also complained about the overall corruption at the DIP. Around 55.2% of the respondents said they faced irregularities and corruption at one stage or the other during the application process – from application form collection to passport collection. The total average bribe paid at the DIP offices in addition to the required passport issuance fee is Tk2,221. TIB Board of Trustees Chairperson Sultana Kamal, who was also present at the event, said the previous TIB report on passport services published in 2014-2015 marked the DIP as “the most corrupted government service sector”. “This latest report may show lower numbers in terms of corruption and bribery, the internal corruption in the DIP has increased. These corrupted officials need to be identified and appropriate action must be taken against them,” she said. She further agreed with Iftekharuzzaman that the police verification system should be abolished to save applicants from extortion and harassment. “If the brokers are not allowed to enter the passport offices, they will not be able to take the extra money from passport applicants. This issue should be taken under consideration in order to stop corruption at passport offices,” she added. The Dhaka Tribune tried to contact SB Additional Inspector General of Police Javed Patwary, but could not reach him.