Govt to buy 40 lakh MRPs for expatriate Bangladeshis

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs yesterday approved a proposal to procure 40 lakh machine-readable passport (MRP) books to meet the immediate requirement of Bangladeshi expatriates.

The home ministry made the proposal before the committee so that Bangladeshis living abroad get the passports, as the government cannot give them e-passports due to the coronavirus pandemic across the globe.

Cabinet Division Additional Secretary Abu Saleh Mostafa Kamal said the government's target is to give everyone e-passport.

"But we are going to buy 40 lakh MRPs due to the Covid-19 situation," he told this newspaper after the cabinet committee meeting was held virtually.

Contacted, Brig Gen Saidur Rahman Khan, project director of e-passport, said for handing over e-passports to Bangladeshi expatriates, they need to set up machines at relevant offices abroad.

"Due to the Covid-19 situation, we are not getting approvals from many countries regarding setting of machines. On the other hand, passports of many Bangladeshis are going to expire and they need to renew these."

"So, we are procuring these MRP books," he added.

Saidur said they are sending 8,000-9,000 MRPs abroad every day to meet the demand of expatriates, most of whom are migrant workers.

He said they cannot switch over to e-passport from MRP directly as e-passport needs more biometric information.

He added that the foreign ministry and they are trying to get permissions from respective countries regarding setting up of machines to hand over e-passports to Bangladeshi expatriates.

Saidur said they are distributing e-passports from 64 passport offices across the country, except three hill districts and Cox's Bazar.

On January 22 this year, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina launched the e-passport and e-gate services at a ceremony at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre.

There will be an embedded microprocessor chip that will contain all information of the passport holders, including their photos, fingerprints and scans of their iris.

So far, 118 countries have already introduced the e-passport, making Bangladesh the 119th country in the world to introduce e-passport.