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Kamal, a Bangladeshi expatriate from Saudi Arabia, has been working at Nesma United Industries Company in a Middle Eastern country for five years. It is a construction company. He works as a painter in this company. He had to submit his passport to the company.
He returned to Bangladesh three days ago, despite his unwillingness, because his passport had expired. He wants an e-passport. But there is no opportunity to get an e-passport in Bangladesh embassy in Saudi Arabia.
Machine Readable Passports (MRP) have shorter validity. That’s why he doesn't want to get Machine-Readable Passport. Right now, he is trying to get an e-passport in the passport office in Bangladesh. He told The Daily Messenger he fell into the troubled water when he came to make an e-passport at the passport office.
He also said, “As many as 40 Bangladeshis work in my company. About 12 of them are suffering from passport problems. The Saudi company employs about one hundred Bangladeshi workers. Of them, who are having a problem with their passport. That's why I complained to the Service Protection Department of the Ministry of Home Affairs.”
According to the data of the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), only 85 thousand 319 workers went to Saudi Arabia in 2022. Besides, a total of 20 to 15 thousand workers went to Sudan, Libya, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, and Kuwait. Around 54 thousand 314 workers went to Malaysia while 4 lakh 57 thousand people went to Saudi Arabia in 2021. Around 20 to 30 thousand migrants went to other countries in the Middle East.
BMET Additional Director General (Employment) Abul Hasnat Muhammad Anwar Pasha told The Daily Messenger that two most favourite destinations for Bangladesh workers are Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. Workers are on high demand in Saudi Arabia because the job demand is high and the salary is high. But the Bangladesh Embassy in Saudi Arabia has not yet launched e-passport. Due to this, the workers are facing various complications. Also, although we have less number of workers in other countries, many workers are facing problems with e-passport.
Abdullah Al Masood Chowdhury, Secretary Security Services Department of the Ministry of Interior told The Daily Messenger, "We have launched e-passports in embassies in 20 countries. It has been introduced in some European countries. A US launch is underway. It will be launched in Saudi Arabia in a few days. Expatriates are experiencing temporary difficulties. But this is not a long-term problem, this problem will be solved in a very short time.”
He also said that e-passport programme has been launched in the embassies, average age, fast delivery of re-issue passports and those who have average age. There are many problems like this giving everyone a chance to correct. We will resolve these quickly.
TDM/SD
