In about 10 months time, Bangladeshi expatriates in Saudi Arabia, especially those without machine readable passports, may find themselves in big trouble.
Several years ago, global regulator International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) decided that travellers and expatriates from all countries must have machine readable passports by November 2015. Otherwise, they will not be able to travel and their stay abroad will be illegal.
Although that deadline is fast drawing close, the Bangladesh embassy in Saudi Arabia has not been able to issue enough machine readable passports (MRPs), plunging hundreds of thousands of expatriates into uncertainty.
The latest news is that the process of issuing MRPs in the oil rich Middle Eastern country has been at a total standstill for more than a week now.
Mokhlesur Rahman, a Bangladeshi living in Dammam, told the Dhaka Tribune over phone: “If we do not get digital passports by November, then 1.5 million Bangladeshi migrant workers like me will become illegal here in Saudi Arabia.”
Even Expatriates Welfare Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain admitted in parliament on Tuesday that ensuring MRPs for 9 lakh expatriates was a big challenge.
The ICAO regulation says those without MRPs cannot be regular at their foreign workstations after November.
Officially, there are around 13 lakh Bangladeshis in Saudi Arabia at present; but according to an unofficial count, the size of Bangladeshi population there is not less than 25 lakh who remitted around Tk3 billion in the last fiscal year.
In July last year, the Bangladesh government contracted Malaysia-based IRIS Corporation Berhad, the global leader in providing digital identity solutions, to do the work on behalf of the embassy.
It has been seven months but the IRIS has not been able to start working allegedly because a section of embassy officials, and assisting the officials from the Department of Immigration & Passports (DIP) to obtain Saudi visas in order to work for the project.
A highly placed source said these embassy staff do not want IRIS to do the work. For years, they have been squeezing out unauthorised amounts from the expatriates, most of whom are labourers with very little or no education.
The embassy claims that they have already issued around 500,000 MRPs in Saudi Arabia. But many of those who got the passports have alleged that they had to pay bribes.
The source said if IRIS, who specialises in machine readable passports, starts doing the work, then these corrupt embassy staff will not be able to make the money as they had been doing for years.
According to the contract signed in July last year, IRIS is supposed to go from door-to-door, collect information and deliver the MRPs to the homes of the expatriates. If that happens, the expatriates will not have to come to the embassy anymore – all the more reason for the corrupt officials and employees to feel alarmed.
Recently, the Dhaka Tribune has talked to a Bangladeshi living in Dammam Al Khabar over phone. He said: “The government-fixed fee for having an MRP is SR125 [or Tk2,500]. But I do not know anyone who got it for less than SR300 [or Tk6,200]. If anyone asks the embassy staff why they are charging more, they reply that the additional amount goes to the embassy high officials.”
Allegedly, a strong racket of brokers has been active around the embassy since the authorities started issuing the MRPs.
Another Bangladeshi who lives in Riyadh told the Dhaka Tribune over phone: “The process of issuing MRPs have been stalled, but the brokers are still very much active and are luring people into their nets.”
The worker, originally from Noakhali district, also said: “For an MRP, a Bangladeshi has to pay around SR60 to brokers. If anyone goes there to get an MRP without involving a broker, the embassy officials do not entertain the application.”
Mohammed Ayub, head of chancery at the Bangladesh embassy in Riyadh, admitted the existence of the brokers.
“These brokers are also Bangladeshis and most of them are typists. When the other Bangladeshis go to them for help, these brokers help them in filling up the complicated MRP forms on the internet. For that service, they charge some money,” he said.
“But we are trying to remove these middlemen. We have already taken action against some brokers,” he claimed.
Interestingly, IRIS is supposed to deliver home everything for just $9 or Tk700 and the services include everything that the brokers and the embassy officials do.
A Bangladeshi from Narsingdhi district who now works at a cyber cafe in Saudi Arabia said: “Many Indians and Pakistanis living here get full-hearted support from their embassy staffs. Their officials sincerely look after their problems; sometimes they even go to the places their expatriates live.”
Sources from the India and Pakistan embassies in Saudi Arabia have informed that their processes for issuing MRPs to their citizens are almost complete.
Several Bangladeshi expatriates living in Saudi Arabia also reported that most of their Indian and Pakistani neighbours have already got their digital passports.
The Dhaka Tribune has contacted the Bangladesh missions in some of the other Middle Eastern countries and found that the situation is worst in Saudi Arabia – where the most number of migrant workers live.
According to local embassy sources, 70% of a total of 10 lakh expatriates have been given MRPs in UAE, the other most important manpower export destination for Bangladesh. Around 80% of the 7 lakh expatriates in Bahrain have already got their MRPs. The progresses in Oman and Qatar are 50% and 40% respectively.
Because Kuwait has a relatively small migrant workers’ community, the embassy there hopes to finish the task well before the November deadline.
The process of issuing MRPs to resident Bangladeshis began in April 2010. The IRIS have installed the logistics here in Bangladesh as well.
Whats and whys
Officials claimed that since the process began a few years ago, the embassy has issued around 5 lakh MRPs.
But that process had to be stopped last year, because the Saudi authorities did not want big crowds in the diplomatic zone in their capital city. They advised the Bangladesh embassy to shift the MRP unit to somewhere else.
So, the embassy took another office outside the capital city and shifted all their MRP activities to that office including the equipment.
Then, in order to speed up the process, the IRIS was contracted for the job. The IRIS has already set up six application processing centres and 30 mobile units in different parts of the country.
But, they have not been able to start work in seven months mainly because of two reasons.
As per contract, for collecting the fees, the company has sought a joint bank account of the Department of Immigration and Passport.
But, the embassy has not been able to provide them with the bank account in all these months. A highly placed source said a section of dishonest embassy officials have been deliberately dillydallying with the process.
When the embassy shifted its MRP activities to its new office outside Riyadh, all the relevant equipment were unplugged from the embassy and shifted to the satellite office.
However, the equipment have not been working since then as some untrained people were tasked with reinstalling the equipment in the new office.
Chancery head Mohammed Ayub yesterday said: “We have applied to the government for six more work stations and replacing the old equipment. Hopefully we will be able to resume work within a day or two.”
