Undocumented Workers in KL
Row over decision to give manual passport
Experts and officials are surprised at the government decision to provide three lakh undocumented workers with manual passports, instead of machine-readable ones, to get them legalised in Malaysia.
Expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment ministry made the decision despite insistence of high-ups and experts that machine-readable passport (MRP) is a feasible solution.
Sources in Malaysia said crores of taka could go into the pockets of a syndicate that became active after the decision was made last month. The syndicate has already started exploiting the migrant workers, they said.
Malaysia recently informed Bangladesh that it would regularise the illegal workers provided they are given valid passports in three months starting from the first week of July.
“We have decided to issue hand-written passports since we don’t have the capacity to produce so many MRPs in such a short time,” said Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain.
However, Syed Ahsan Habib, a consultant to the MRP project, said, “Although challenging, MRPs can be issued to the workers within the deadline.”
“The positive thing is that a Malaysian firm [IRIS JV] is implementing the MRP project in Bangladesh. It has necessary logistics and manpower to do the job,” he said.
In a surprise move, Mosharraf told reporters on May 31 that the workers would be issued with hand-written passports.
The announcement came after the decision of issuing MRPs for the workers was made at inter-ministerial meetings between the home and the foreign ministries, and another meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). The Malaysian government has also been insisting on issuing MRPs for the workers.
Mosharraf claimed he made the decision after consulting with the officials concerned. Staff from the Department of Immigration and Passport (DIP) will be sent to Malaysia for issuing hand-written passports, he said.
Asked about the cheating of workers, the minister said, “The workers should know how to preserve their interests.”
Seeking anonymity, a senior home ministry official said, “The minister’s announcement surprised us all.” The official was present at the first inter-ministerial meeting on the issue on May 25.
Home Secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikder chaired the meeting attended by secretary of expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment ministry Zafar Ahmed Khan, DIP officials and experts of the MRP project. A decision to take a crash programme to issue MRPs for the three lakh workers was made at the meeting.
Officials of the DIP and MRP project explained how MRPs can be issued within the deadline.
Secretary Zafar Ahmed Khan and Bangladesh High Commissioner to Malaysia AKM Atiqur Rahman also suggested issuing MRPs for the workers.
The suggestion for issuing MRPs for the migrant workers also came up at another inter-ministerial meeting at the foreign ministry on May 26.
A meeting was also held at the PMO two months ago to discuss how quickly expatriate workers can be given MRPs in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Nearly four million Bangladeshis now work in those countries.
The meeting was convened following Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s instructions to expedite the process of issuing MRPs for all expatriate workers, said sources.
Officials and experts said hand-written passports cannot be a wise choice when countries around the world are objecting to manual passports.
“We cannot go for manual passports when the facility to issue MRPs is in place,” said a DIP official, seeking anonymity. He said it takes less than 10 minutes to produce an MRP, and 15 to 20 minutes to prepare a manual one.
There is a risk that there would be mistakes in hand-written passports, as hired hands will prepare them.
The government has to send 200 to 300 people in several groups to Malaysia for issuing the passports. At least 5,000 passports have to be issued a day to meet the deadline.
A DIP official said the government can consider outsourcing the task. “The government should take the matter seriously in the interest of the workers and the country,” the official added.
-With The Daily Star input
