Expats in Spore to get NID cards this month
A feasibility study has been done to issue NID cards to about 1,000 Bangladeshis living in Singapore
HARUN UR RASHID, Dhaka
Bangaldeshi expatriates living in Singapore are going to get National Identity (NID) cards this month, as the Election Commission (EC) has made final preparations for it. EC sources said a team of the commission completed the feasibility study for issuing NID cards to about 1,000 Bangladeshi expatriates in Singapore in March. The commission said now they would send another team to Singapore after Eid-ul-Fitr to complete the tasks so that the Bangladeshi expatriates living there can get the NID.
The EC will carry out the work by its technical team with the assistance of the Bangladeshi embassy in Singapore. If everything goes well, the Bangladeshi expatriates living there will get the NID cards. Commission sources last week said they want to issue NID cards for all Bangladeshi expatriates living in different countries.
If the process goes well in Singapore, the EC will move forward to other countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain.
NID wing sources said they would at first issue the NID cards to the expatriates because these people suffer while buying land and property, opening bank accounts, getting driving licence in Bangladesh.
The expatriates who do not have NID cards cannot open a bank account in Bangladesh. Even if they want to send remittance to Bangladesh through banks, they face problems without NID cards. Many people send money illegally, which deprives the Bangladesh government from earning revenue which contributes to national development.
It was a long demand to issue NID cards for expatriate nationals of Bangladesh, so that they can cast their votes during parliamentary elections.
Sources said as these people send their hard-earned money to Bangladesh which keeps the wheels of countrys economy moving, they have every right to elect their representatives to the national Parliament.
NID wing sources said they would issue the NID cards at first, but it is hard to say when they would be able to cast votes during election time from abroad. This would depend on the decision of the EC. NID wing director
(operations) Md Abdul Baten told The Independent: We have completed the feasibility study for issuing NID cards for the Bangladeshi expatriates in Singapore. A technical team will go there after Eid-ul-Fitr to complete the task.
Once it is completed, initiative would be taken to provide NID cards in other countries. The EC has been working on the matter for a long time. As the expatriates face problems in getting various services for not having NID cards when they come to Bangladesh, it is our duty to provide them with the cards to ease their sufferings, he added.
The EC said they have taken Singapore as their first case as the number of Bangladeshi expatriates there is lower compared to other countries.
Sources said more than 1,00,000 Bangladeshi expatriates are living in Singapore.
On April 19 last year, the EC held a seminar titled Providing NID and voting rights to expatriate Bangladeshi citizens where officials of different ministries were present.
Speakers at the seminar unanimously agreed that Bangladeshi nationals living abroad should be given NID cards as they face problems both at home and abroad in the absence of such documents.
The commission started issuing NID cards with photos in 2008. At that time two election commissioners had travelled abroad to conduct a feasibility study with the hope of providing NID cards to expatriates so that they can cast votes.
