Bangladeshi citizens have been experiencing unusually lengthy delays in visa applications for travel to Thailand.
The time taken to process visas for Bangladeshis has recently multiplied ten-fold without warning or explanation. Much unnecessary inconvenience and hardship is being caused for applicants, some of whom are having their passports held up for months by delays in processing.
A large number of business and family trips have had to be rescheduled or canceled due to these protracted delays which are deterring many Bangladeshis from making plans to travel to Thailand.
It is in the interest of both nations to fix the problem, as over 110,000 Bangladeshis travel to Thailand every year, many of whom are going for medical treatment and health services.
Bangladesh’s Ambassador to Thailand has raised concerns in meetings with the Thailand Foreign Affairs Ministry. For their part, Thai officials have given assurances that they too want to solve the issue urgently as their government greatly appreciates Bangladeshis choosing Thailand as a destination for medical treatment and tourism.
Fixing this problem is also important to help boost the growing bilateral trade between Bangladesh and Thailand which is currently worth around $1.2bn each year.
Officials at last week’s signing of an agreement to establish direct coastal shipping links that aim to more than halve the two weeks it takes to ship goods via Singapore, predict that trade could quadruple in coming years as connectivity improves.
It is very important to fix the visa delay issue soon to help cement and provide a strong platform on which to build the growing trade and travel links between Bangladesh and Thailand.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
