CNI News
7 Dec 2022
Replacing the online booking system for appointments in applying for passports with a new one is likely to increase the number of passport agents, labour activists and overseas employment agencies told the CNI News.
As applicants could make bookings for appointments only within office hours under the old system but the new one will allow them to apply for passports 24/7, labour activists and overseas employment agencies predicted that the number of passport agents would increase.
Ko Nay Oo, a director of an overseas employment agency sending workers to Japan, told the CNI, "As the old system allowed applicants to use any QR codes, some people resold the QR codes they had received by bribing responsible officers. We wanted authorities to stop such a practice. It is true that QR codes bear the names, national registration card numbers and dates of birth but as agents had already bribed the officers, the latter permitted any applicants to come to them. If such a practice could be prevented, there would have been no place for agents."
People who have received QR Codes queuing at the passport office. (CNI)
At present, the old online booking system to make appointments at the passport office has been suspended and it will take three weeks to introduce the new system, according to the News Information Team of the SAC.
Moreover, those who have received QR codes for appointments under the old system can still come to the passport office, according to authorities.
The passport office has also urged the public not to buy QR codes nor to use other people's QR codes as the system has been suspended as of 5th December.
There are advantages and disadvantages in both the in-person application process and the online booking process, Labour Activist U Min Oo of the Foundation for Education and Development told the CNI.
Surrounding areas of the passport office. (CNI)
He told the CNI, "If people apply for passports by themselves, no one cannot cheat them. However, when some applicants complete forms, they lack basic knowledge and education. They don't want to go through red tape. So, they hire passport agents, who take advantage of the situation. As most of our workers lack IT knowledge, passport agents take advantage of the situation in one way or another. If authorities can create an environment in which workers can apply for passports easily, the number of passport agents will decrease. I think the number of passport agents will swell under the new system."
Therefore, labour activists and overseas employment agencies have urged authorities to adopt a new simple online booking system to apply for passports.
Recently, workers had to pay as much as MMK 500,000 to agents and some of them were even cheated through fake QR codes, according to labour activists and overseas employment agencies.
