The government yesterday gave Malaysian outsourcing company IRIS one more month to accelerate enrolling expatriates in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Malaysia for Machine-readable Passport (MRPs) or face contract cancellations.
The ultimatum was issued at an advisory committee meeting held at the Probashi Kalayan Bhaban on providing Bangladeshi expatriates with MRPs.
Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain was furious at the meeting over the negligence and failures of IRIS in enrolling the expatriates, sources said.
Department of Immigration and Passport (DIP) Director General NM Zeaul Alam told the meeting that IRIS was enrolling on an average 1,258 migrant workers a day in Saudi Arabia even though it promised on March 19 that it would enrol 9,000 every day.
In the UAE, it was enrolling 125 to 150 people a day and in Malaysia 89 people against a promise of 5,000 a day in each country.
Minister Mosharraf in the meeting even asked State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan how such a “dreadful” company had been selected to do the massive job.
The state minister, who is supposed to monitor and ensure the MRP issuance job, did not respond, sources said.
The IRIS was not represented by any of its senior officials at the meeting. Two representatives of the IRIS at the meeting failed to explain the company’s persistent failures.
Mosharraf rebuked the IRIS representatives for not being fully prepared for the meeting.
IRIS Sales Manager Bahjat Aman only kept on saying “Inshallah” (with the help of Allah) things would improve soon.
At one point, when an IRIS representative was giving excuses, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali called them liars, meeting sources said.
The foreign minister said when the main contractor in Malaysia, Bangladeshi company Dataedge-iPeople consortium, was enrolling a huge number of people when it had the job, then why IRIS, being a Malaysian company, had failed miserably taking over the operations from Dataedge?
“IRIS is simply an incapable company to do the job,” the foreign minister added.
Bangladesh ambassadors to Saudi Arabia and the UAE Golam Moshi and Muhammad Imran were present at the meeting while Shahidul Islam, high commissioner in Malaysia, joined in via video conference.
They expressed frustrations over IRIS and its incompetence.
Secretaries of Local Government Division Abdul Malek and Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry Khorshed Alam Chowdhury said the home ministry and the DIP should be held accountable for their failures to monitor the MRP job.
None came up with an explanation as to why IRIS was given the scope to continue even after repeated failures over the last one year, jeopardising the future of several lakh migrant workers.
The immediate-past DG of DIP Abdul Mabud, project director of MRP project Brig Gen Masud Rezwan, the state minister for home, and the former additional secretary of the home ministry Shafiqul Islam seemed reluctant to take action against IRIS, said officials in the foreign and expatriate welfare ministries.
Mosharraf yesterday said the prime minister had to form the advisory committee to look into the matter because of the failure of the home ministry.
He advised the state minister and the DG of DIP to form a Monitoring Cell by yesterday and come up with a clear work programme by Monday.
The cell would monitor IRIS’s activities in the three countries daily and report to Mosharraf weekly.
The next advisory committee meeting on the progress of IRIS and the missions would be held on April 16.
In response to the requests from the ambassadors, Mosharraf directed the MRP project director to provide the missions with additional equipment to increase the missions’ enrolment capabilities.
According to mission officials, around 21 lakh expatriates in Saudi Arabia, around four lakh in the UAE, and around five lakh in Malaysia would need MRPs within November 24, the deadline set by International Civil Aviation Organisation to end the use of old passports.
Mosharraf said the government might consider hiring new outsourcing companies for the job.
Source: The Daily Star
