The government is reportedly planning to home deliver machine-readable passports (MRP) to 15 lakh expatriates in Saudi Arabia before the use of regular passport is phased out in November next year.
According to guidelines of the International Civil Aviation Organisation, the government has to convert all Bangladeshi passports to machine readable versions by November 2015.
Bangladeshi expatriates in Saudi Arabia will have to pay an extra $9, over the Tk3,000 (for normal processing) or Tk6,000 (for speedy processing), as delivery charge to get their MRPs sent to their addresses from the Bangladesh embassy in Saudi Arabia.
A senior official of the Home Ministry said 90% of Bangladeshi expatriates, especially those in the Middle East, do not hold machine-readable passports. The official also said Bangladesh might miss the MRP deadline if the civil aviation authority did not speed up the process.
Recently, labour secretaries of Bangladesh missions in 21 countries also expressed their concerns over the slow progress in converting passports and urged the government to expedite the process.
The Home Ministry has already sent a proposal to the cabinet committee on public purchase for the hiring of a company to home deliver MRPs to Bangladeshi expatriates in Saudi Arabia. The proposal will be placed at the next meeting of the purchase committee.
Senior Home Secretary CQK Mustaq Ahmed confirmed that the proposal had been sent to the purchase committee for approval, adding that since this was a new type of project, it would be time consuming to have it thoroughly scrutinised.
As per the ministry proposal, MRPs would be delivered to Bangladeshi expatriates in Saudi Arabia by a foreign company. Saudi Arabia firm IRIS Corporation Berhad Consortium has reportedly obtained the highest number (96.10%) as ranked by the tender evaluation committee with a cost of Tk105.3 crore.
Sources in the Home Ministry said the firm concerned would open three mobile units each at Riyadh city and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to give out machine-readable passports.
The government has already started to home deliver MRPs to six lakh expatriates in Malaysia, as regular passport holders may face problems from November 2015 because of the shift to MRPs.