Malaysian IRIS Corporation Berhad is now not paying Bangladesh about Tk 50 crore it had collected from Bangladeshi expatriates as passport fees.
This is the company whose failure in machine readable passport (MRP) enrolment is going to put the fate of at least five lakh Bangladeshis abroad at stake in less than two weeks.
Over the last six months, the company has repeatedly been asked to deposit the money, according to documents and officialsconcemed.
As per its contracts with Bangladesh, IRIS has to deposit the passport fees and service charges it had realised from expatriates in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for the MRP to the bank accounts of
Bangladesh missions concerned. The government was then supposed to pay IRIS its service charge.
"IRIS deposited some money but [it is| not willing to pay the entire amount," said a senior official of the Department of Immigration and Passport (DIP).
IRIS' contract with the government ended in August but the company is not handing over 1,075 MRPs to Bangladeshis in Malaysia, leaving them in a limbo.
The expatriates who would not have MRPs before the expiry of November 24 deadline, set by the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO), would face multiple problems, like losing their jobs and deportation.
THE MONEY
IRIS is keeping Bangladesh's money in its
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own accounts, grossly violating its contracts. It was supposed to regularly deposit the money to the bank accounts of Bangladesh missions in Saudi Arabia and the UAE and submit statements to the DIP.
In Saudi Arabia, the Malaysian company enrolled 1.5 lakh expatriates. For each enrolment, it took SR 125 as fee and SR 35 as service charge, which means the company realised a total of Tk 50 crore from the expatriates.
"Only a small fraction of the amount was deposited and that too before May this year," a mission official told The Daily Star, adding that IRIS did not deposit the huge amount of Bangladesh government's money, despite repeatedly being warned.
Bangladesh Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Golam Moshi said the Malaysian company does not deposit money as per the contract and that he had informed the DIP about it. However, he could not say the exact amount yet to be realised from IRIS.
Same was the case in the UAE, IRIS collected about Tk 8 crore as passport fees and service charges enrolling about 30,000 expatriates. Only a small portion of it was deposited, said a DIP official.
Ambassador to the UAE Muhammad Imran declined to comment.
The DIP and Bangladesh missions in the two countries said IRIS did not give any bottom line of the money it had collected from expatriates and thus they did not know the exact amount IRIS owes Bangladesh.
However, they said it would be over Tk 50 crore.
In a letter to IRIS' Deputy Managing Director Dato Hamdan on September 17, the DIP asked the company to deposit all the money it had collected
from Saudi Arabia. "This is a huge financial irregularity," it read.
The DIP issued another letter on October 21, asking the same IRIS official to deposit the money collected in the UAE.
Director General of DIP Zeaul Alam said IRIS has to pay the money. "We asked them to come to Dhaka to settle the issue.
“How much they [IRIS] actually owe Bangladesh has to be determined," he added when asked if the amount was more than Tk 70 crore.
MISSING MRPS
Although the company closed its activities in Malaysia in August, it is yet to provide 1,075 MRPs to Bangladeshi expatriates there.
"Holders of the passports waited months for getting their passports. Desperate, they are running between Bangladesh High Commission and IRIS offices for their passports," said a DIP official.
"We held several meetings, asked IRIS to hand over the passports but they have not been moved,” he regretted.
DIP Deputy Director Zakir Hossain, who is in Kuala Lumpur, said he along with three other officials were trying to get the MRPs. "We are also trying to know the whereabouts of 1,320 MRP applications which IRIS did not process with the DIP for passport issuance," he said.
The DIP chief failed to explain why the Malaysian firm seized those passports and why it was not punished for risking the fate of so many Bangladeshis.
"We will take up the matters with IRIS officials who are coming to attend a meeting to be held at the home ministry on Wednesday [today]," he toldThe Daily Star.
DEADLINE AND CONSEQUENCES
At least five lakh expatriates, majority of them in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and the UAE would not get their MRPs within the November 24 deadline, as per assessments done by the officials of Bangladesh missions.
The blame goes to IRIS, which got the MRP enrolment job for expatriates in those countries but failed to do its job properly. This forced the Bangladesh government to build capacity in the missions for issuing MRPs to the expatriates.
Worried about their jobs and scared of being deported, many migrant workers returned to Bangladesh just to get their MRPs.
Of the 15 lakh Bangladeshis staying in Saudi Arabia, 10-11 lakh would get their MRPs before the deadline. In the UAE, some 50,000 out of eight lakh, would not get the passports while among six lakh in Malaysia some 30,000-40,000 would be left out, according to assessments of the missions.
The Daily Star talked to a number of migrant workers who are yet to get their MRPs.
"My working days will be numbered as my employer asked for my MRP to get my work visa extended after November 24," said a migrant over telephone.
Gazi Rasel of Brahmanbaria is another who works for a construction firm in Penang. "I am scared of losing my job if I don't get my M RP soon."
The Malaysian company hasn't been held responsible for risking the jobs of a large number of expatriates, not depositing the money it collected and failing to hand over passports in Malaysia.
The reason is, some top officials of the home ministry and the DIP are reportedly working in favour of the company.