Chief Adviser's Deputy Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad Majumder on Tuesday said that SMS containing e-passport delivery information to expatriate Bangladeshis will begin on Wednesday (January 8).

Director General of the Department of Immigration and Passports, Major General Md Nurul Anwar, conveyed the good news, Azad said.

This service in delivering e-passports is available at home and similar service will begin abroad on Wednesday for expatriate Bangladeshis, he told reporters at a media briefing at the Foreign Service Academy.

CA’s Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam, Senior Assistant Press Secretary Foyez Ahammad, Assistant Press Secretary Suchismita Tithi were present.

When e-passports of the expatriate Bangladeshis will be ready at home and those will be sent to Bangladesh missions abroad, they will be informed through SMS notifying that their passports are ready for delivery.

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He said once the service is launched, the suffering of Bangladeshis living abroad will ease.

Due to departmental complexities, about 1.97 lakh machine-readable passports (MRPs) of expatriate Bangladeshis were pending for printing.

In the last three weeks, 1,82,745 MRPs were sent to Bangladesh missions abroad and those would be delivered soon, the DPS said.

He said the interim government hopes that about 1.2 crore expatriate Bangladeshis will benefit from these services.

Azad said many initiatives are underway to ease the processes of issuing passports and its delivery.

He said the government and the passports department have been working to make passport offices broker-free to minimise the suffering of passport seekers.