Bangladesh News

Bangladesh will miss the April 1 deadline set by International Civil Aviation Organisation for introducing machine-readable passport (MRP) as it will take about two months to set up offices with required equipment for the purpose, officials concerned said.

No handwritten passport will be issued from April 1 since all 187 ICAO members agreed to use machine-readable passports after March 31. It means no Bangladeshi citizen will get a new passport until the country issues MRPs, they said.

“You will not get a machine-readable passport from April 1 as we are not yet prepared to produce it,” said a local agent of Malaysia-based IRIS Corporation Berhad, who will produce MRPs in Bangladesh.

He said complications over opening a letter of credit delayed the entire process of introducing MRP. The official hopes to receive applications for MRP from April 1.

Quebec-based ICAO developed standards for machine-readable travel documents, including passports and visas, to scan the documents in automated system, which is fast and less prone to error.

All members of the organisation in 2005 agreed to shift to MRPs by April 1, 2010. The handwritten passports however will remain valid until the date of expiry mentioned in the books.

IRIS officials said they were trying to open LC since the company signed the contract with Bangladesh government on February 17.

“There was an agreement to open a letter of credit in favour of our firm within a week of signing the agreement. But the official procedure is eating up a lot of time,” the IRIS official said.

He said they couldn’t import required equipment for not having the LC.

Brig Gen Refayet Ullah, director of the project to introduce MRPs and machine-readable visa (MRV) in Bangladesh, regretted it saying the LC should have been opened much earlier.

He told The Daily Star that they expected to finish the whole process fast but it is taking more time than they had anticipated.

Abdul Mabud, director general of Department of Immigration and Passport, said a few things including opening of LC remain pending with different ministries.

“We are working hard to complete the primary tasks,” he added.

The local agent of IRIS said they need to train people, develop a network between the passport offices across the country, finalise passport design and security features to produce MRPs.

Both the IRIS agent and the project director said it might take the entire April month to complete all procedure for producing MRPs.

They said preparations have been made to set up 10 passport centres — one each in seven divisions and in Mymensingh, Jessore and Gopalganj.

“Two floors at the Department of Immigration and Passport at Agargaon in the capital are being refurbished for the purpose,” said the project director.

IRIS will work in Bangladesh for three years to implement the Tk 526 crore project to introduce MRP and MRV. Bangladesh will provide it with necessary manpower to complete the project, he added.