Forty-four electronic gates installed at the country鈥檚 three international airports and two land ports have failed to improve passenger services at the immigration points during the international travels due to lack of integration of other services, including advance passenger information system .
The e-gates cannot authenticate visas be it sticker or e-visa and cannot gather some required details of a passenger, including purpose of the visit and flight details, immigration officials said.
As a result, the e-gates, a significant component of a mega project, remains largely unused as hardly passengers swap their e-passport with the e-gate just to authenticate its holder.
Immigration police officials also said that they needed to scan machine readable passport or e-passport for their own off-line data system before clearing or restricting a passenger鈥檚 travel.
During recent visits at the Hazrat Shahajalal International Airport, most of the e-passport holders were seen avoiding e-gates and queuing at nearby immigration desks directly for both arrival and departure lounge for the manual stamp-based immigration process.
Immigration police estimates that about 43,000 people cross immigration checkpoints a day across the country and nearly half of them use the HSIA.
According to Department of Immigration and Passports data, the number of passengers swapping e-passports at e-gates at the HSIA was 61 on April 11, 119 on April 12 and 330 on April 17.
At Sylhet airport, none used e-gates in April 11-13 while five swaps took place in the period at Chattogram airport.
At Benapol land port in Jashore, 162 people used e-gates in that week while 97 others used at Banglabandha land port during the same period.
According to the e-passport and automated border control management project officials at the department, the authorities set up 26 e-gates at arrivals halls and departure halls at the HSIA in Dhaka, 6 e-gates each at the Shah Amanat International Airport in Chattogram and the Osmani International Airport in Sylhet, 4 e-gates at the Benapol Land Port in Jashore and the rest two e-gates at the Banglabandha Land Port in Panchagarh in the past two years.
Frequent flyer Mohammad Abdullah, who is employed at a private firm in Dhaka, said, 鈥楾he officials told me that the e-gate could authenticate my passport only. So I do not show any interest in using the e-gate.鈥�
The 鈧�340-million project started in 2018, when the government engaged German company Veridos for 12 years to supply, install and implement e-passports and automated border control systems, including e-gates.
Since the beginning of the printing in January 2020, the department under the project printed more than 1.30 crore e-passports, replacing the machine-readable ones.
In June 2022, the government announced full operation of the e-gates to expedite 鈥榩assengers鈥� immigration鈥�.
Additional director of the project Colonel Md Khalid Saifullah said they completed their part for the installation of the enquired software and the integration of other services for the proper use of the e-gates.
Head of the immigration police deputy inspector general Monirul Islam declined to comment.
A senior immigration police official, however, said that immigration officials needed to follow 鈥榯heir own process鈥� to verify visas before the travel of passengers.
鈥極therwise, there is a risk of human trafficking,鈥� the official claimed.
The e-gates cannot verify visa of outgoing passengers, the purpose of the visit, destination information and flight details, said the official.
On January 29, 2024, the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh extended a memorandum of understanding signed with United Arab Emirates to set up Advance Passenger Information System to detect unauthorised travel and fraudulent documents.
The APIS enhances border security by providing officers with pre-arrival and pre-departure manifest data on all passengers and crew members, CAAB officials said.
A CAAB official said that the APIS management would be managed by the immigration police, the customs authorities and the Department of Immigration and Passports for border management.
Once the smart border management system, including the e-gates and APIS, among others, are be implement and integrated, passenger service would be seamless.
