Bangladesh Embassy in Athens Begins Electronic Passport Services for Expats

On 13 September 2021, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal launched e-passport services at Bangladesh Embassy in Athens, Greece.

Bangladesh Embassy in Athens guarantees Bangladeshi expatriates to experience a trouble-free passport service amid the pandemic. It will make the emigration process more secure and easy for the Bangladeshis while travelling.

Asaduzzaman expressed that the machine-readable passport (MRP) was introduced in 2010 as a feature of the achievement of Digital Bangladesh envisioned by Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina after taking the reins of the nation. E-passports are included as a string of development in 2021.

E-passport services are considerable advancement towards building a Digital Bangladesh. The beginning of the e-passports from one viewpoint makes the identification process more manageable. Moreover, it will enhance Bangladeshi passports and improve their reputation internationally.

Afterwards, Asaduzzaman, alongside the diplomat and different dignitaries, visited the e-passport system set up and experienced the primary enrolment of the e-passport at the Embassy. Already, around 120 nations worldwide have biometric e-passport systems set up.

What is an e-passport?

Overall, most of the passports, in general, are a machine-readable passport, which means they carry printed data on the identity page, also known as the data page, which an optical reader scans.

On the contrary, an e-passport is a biometric ID card installed with an embedded electronic chip that holds similar data imprinted inside the passport, like the holder’s name, nationality, address, date of birth etc. The biometric information of the passport holder is also saved inside the chip. 

The e-passport will assist travellers with getting rid of the problem of waiting in long queues at the immigration counters and save time. It is designed in such a way that no one can erase the data on the chip. E-passport authentication will not function if anyone attempts to tamper with the chipset.