Problem over issuing MRPs resolved

The shortage of passports at the Bangladesh embassy in Washington DC is coming to an end because the "technical problem" delaying the printing of machine-readable passports have been solved, the embassy said in a statement yesterday.

"At least 1,101 of the 1,364 passports that were processed from the Bangladesh Embassy in Washington DC have already been printed. These passports are expected to arrive in Washington by FedEx soon," it said.

The applications for passports were submitted to the embassy between June 21 and August 12, the statement said.

Over 1.5 lakh applications remain pending for months because the authorities had not upgraded the software before the 30-million limit for the passports was crossed in early June.

Bangladeshi migrants from different countries have been expressing frustration over the delay.

Migrants became undocumented, facing risks of detention, failing to apply for work permits, and facing problems accessing healthcare, especially in the Southeast Asian and the Gulf countries where a majority of Bangladesh's 1.5 crore migrants work.

Besides, Bangladesh missions from different countries wrote letters to the Department of Immigration and Passports about the problems.

Officials said Malaysia's IRIS Corporation that operates and maintains the Automated Fingerprint Identification System and DIP recently signed a new agreement for upgrading the system.

An official said the upgradation is going on and it will take a few more days for the DIP to fully resume the printing of passports.

The DIP has yet to make a statement on what led to such a debacle and exactly when and how the issue was going to be addressed.