FROM PAGE 12

made Surokkha app, developed for nationwide Covid-19 vaccine registration, available for migrant workers from Monday afternoon, incorporating a new feature in it for them.

Md Mamun, a Kuwait-based migrant worker who returned home on vacation in January, said for BMET registration, he submitted required documents to the Dhaka District Employment and Manpower Office housed on the capital’s Probashi Kalyan Bhaban on Sunday.

He said upon submitting the documents, officials assured him that they would further process the documents and that he would be able to register with Surokkha app later.

Mamun said he himself tried to do the registration via mobile phone yesterday but failed. Later, he went to a nearby computer shop in the city’s Shanir Akhra to complete the registration.

“However, an operator there took my passport number and date of birth and he later said the [registration] process was not working at this moment,” he added.

He added that two of his fellow migrant workers outside Dhaka also tried to get registered with Surokkha but failed.

Nazrul Islam, Saudi Arabia-based worker who came home in February, said he registered with the BMET through Ami Probashi app on Saturday.

The expatriate said he could not complete his registration despite attempting several times from Monday afternoon to night.

After giving passport number and date of birth, a message appeared citing the “verification” is not completed, he added.

He said his visa will expire after July 13, while his flight date is on July 10.

“Thinking that getting vaccine will be impossible within this short time, I have already confirmed hotel booking in Saudi Arabia for quarantine,” he added.

He further said other migrant workers known to him also could not complete their registration with Surokkha app yesterday.

Asked, Debabrata Ghosh, assistant director at Cumilla District Employment and Manpower Office, said both the BMET and Surokkha app registration processes are linked to the server of the passport authorities.

There is a possibility that the process can show “pending” if data is not generated from the passport database, he said.

It could also happen that such migrant workers’ BMET registration have not been completed yet, he told this newspaper by phone.

Under the BMET registration process, about 20,000 to 21,000 migrant workers have registered between Saturday and Monday, according to the expatriates’ welfare ministry.

On the other hand, health authorities said they would inoculate up to 1,400 migrant workers, who are waiting to travel to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, with Pfizer vaccine shots each day at seven hospitals in the capital.

Meanwhile, Quazi Md Rashid Un Nabi, director of Sir Salimullah Medical College Hospital (SSMCH), yesterday said they would start administering the workers with the jabs from today.

He said they got the names of over 250 eligible migrant workers for Pfizer vaccine doses.

The vaccination centre at SSMCH is one of the seven centres in the capital where migrant workers can get Pfizer vaccine jabs.

The government decided to vaccinate Saudi Arabia and Kuwait bound migrant workers with Pfizer shots as it is one of the four vaccines approved in the Middle East countries.