Haque Specialized Group's News

Arafat Ara Middlemen are still active in the process of delivering passports at the Agargaon office of the Department of Immigration and Passports. The malpractice has been going on although the authorities claim to have taken different initiatives to stop it. It is alleged that a section of corrupt officials is involved in the process. They do not provide proper services deliberately so that the middlemen could squeeze out extra bucks from the passport-seekers. The money illegally is distributed among the dishonest section of officials. Some protection forces including police and Ansar are also involved in deceitful activities, they complained. While visiting the Agargaon passport office, this correspondent found a number of middlemen in and outside its premises. Nuruzzaman, a middleman, approached this scribe mistaking her as a passport-seeker. He offered to deliver a passport within seven days at an amount of Tk 14,000. He also said no one could get a passport in time without their (middlemen) help. Nuruzzaman said presently they can't manage police verification report from Dhaka. So he advised this reporter to use her present address in Mymensingh and go for finger print and complete other procedures there. "You have to spend only one day to go to Mymensingh. After that, all responsibilities are mine to deliver your passport", the broker assured this correspondent. When asked, Nuruzzaman said the police officials appointed for verification reports are now under strict supervision. So they can't communicate with them. Every day the agent in question makes deals with at least 15 people to help provide passports within the shortest possible time. So far, he claimed to have provided such services to more than 1,000 people. Talking to the FE, a large number of people, who went to the Agargaon office for getting passports, said, middlemen at first tried to trap them. They offered hassle-free services. Some of passport-seekers have also taken the help of the intermediaries. They said they face harassment that begins with the first step of completing formalities for having passports and continues until they receive those. "I received a passport within six days as a middleman helped in this process. I gave Tk 13,000 to the person," said Mr Alam, who will go to Egypt for travel. "There was no option as my flight is only the day after tomorrow. If I go through normal procedure, it will take minimum 15 days," he pointed out.   Besides, a section of brokers also charges extra money from mostly illiterate people while depositing fees with banks, attesting documents and for other purposes. However, a group of students who will go to India for visit said they did not face much trouble as they applied online and submitted documents with designated desks. Monira Khatun, a housewife who went to the office to renew her passport, also said, the services have improved to some extent now-a-days. "If officials perform their duty honestly, there is no reason for harassment," she observed. Considering the number of passport-seekers, the Passport Department has already decentralised its Machine Readable Passport (MRP) distribution services to four places including Uttara, Jatrabari, Dhaka Cantonment and Bangladesh Secretariat in the city. But the same problems also exist in the centres other than those located in Dhaka Cantonment and Bangladesh Secretariat, said an official, wishing anonymity. He said brokers are also active at Uttara and Jatrabari passport offices. Officials in every district, who supervise police verification reports, intentionally make delay in sending documents to the Special Branch (SB) for investigation so that the passport-seekers are forced to give bribe or take help of the middlemen, he added. He said the officials engaged in monitoring the entire process are also involved somehow in the racket. The illegal practices decline to some extent when the police arrest the brokers. But after some days, they are found back in the business. According to officials at the Department of Immigration and Passports, urgent passports are delivered after seven days. On the other hand, in the normal process, the passports are given within 21 days after submitting applications along with deposit of required fees or charges. When contacted, project director of MRP and Machine Readable Visa (MRV) project Saidur Rahman Khan said they are trying to expedite service delivery to the passport seekers. They are also planning to increase the number of counters so that the passport-seekers get smooth services. Middlemen are being arrested on regular basis. After introducing CCTV cameras on different floors, their activities have been controlled in the office premises, he said. The department will also increase the number of CCTV cameras to help check such malpractices, he said.     arafat_ara@hotmail.com....

Published at: 2017-08-05 00:00:04

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has called for "unique solutions" to preserve the relationship between the UK and the European Union after Brexit. On his first official visit to Northern Ireland, he raised the possibility of a bilateral UK-EU customs union. The taoiseach described Brexit as "the challenge of this generation", reports BBC.  In response, the UK Government said it wanted a special partnership with the EU, including an "ambitious free trade agreement and a customs agreement". Speaking to an invited audience at Queen's University, Belfast, Mr Varadkar said: "Every single aspect of life in Northern Ireland could be affected by Brexit." Those who favour a hard Brexit have already had 14 months to come up with a plan, he warned. "If they cannot, and I believe they cannot, we can then talk meaningfully about solutions that might work for all of us," he said. "The Brexit negotiations are well underway in Brussels. And, to quote (EU chief Brexit negotiator) Michel Barnier, the clock is ticking." Mr Varadkar offered two of his own suggestions: The possibility of an EU-UK customs union if the UK wants to remain in the customs union A "deep free trade agreement" with the EU if the UK does not want to stay in the single market, with the possibility of its rejoining EFTA (European Free Trade Association) The taoiseach referred to the lack of input into the Brexit debate from Northern Ireland due to the collapse of the Stormont executive, and urged politicians to do a deal to restore power-sharing. "We need an answer to the question of who we - and others in Europe - talk to in Belfast," he said. "Who will speak for Northern Ireland and her 1.8 million people?"  ....

Published at: 2017-08-05 00:00:04

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has announced four people have been charged over leaks as he launched a crackdown on disclosure of classified material. He said the suspects stood accused of unlawfully divulging classified information or concealing contacts with foreign intelligence officers, says a report on BBC on Friday. America's top prosecutor said the administration has tripled the number of active leak probes since January. President Donald Trump has criticised the attorney general as "very weak" on leaks. Leaks 'staggering' At Friday's news conference, Sessions said no government could be effective when its leaders could not talk freely in confidence with foreign leaders. "I strongly agree with the president and condemn in the strongest terms the staggering number of leaks undermining the ability of our government to protect this country. He said there had been a "dramatic" increase in recent months of unauthorised disclosures to the media and even foreign adversaries. The attorney general also said he wanted to review policies on media subpoenas - compelling journalists to testify in court - to balance the role of the press with protecting national security.  ....

Published at: 2017-08-05 00:00:04

The Trump administration has issued its first written notification that the US intends to withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate agreement. But in the notice to the United Nations the US state department said Washington would remain in the talks process. President Donald Trump drew international condemnation in June when he first announced the US intention to withdraw. He said the deal "punished" the US and would cost millions of American jobs. Friday's announcement is seen as largely symbolic as no nation seeking to leave the pact can officially announce an intention to withdraw until 4 November 2019. The process of leaving then takes another year, meaning it would not be complete until just weeks after the US presidential election in 2020. Any new US president could then decide to rejoin the agreement. "Today, the United States submitted a communication to the United Nations in its capacity as depositary for the Paris Agreement regarding the US intent to withdraw from the Paris Agreement as soon as it is eligible to do so," the US statement read. "The United States will continue to participate in international climate change negotiations and meetings... to protect US interests and ensure all future policy options remain open to the administration." In June, Mr Trump indicated he was open to another climate deal "on terms that are fair to the United States". However, key signatories to the accord quickly ruled that out. The Paris Agreement took decades to finalise. The US stance on climate change also caused divisions at the G20 summit in Germany last month. A joint summit statement said it "took note of the decision of the United States of America to withdraw from the Paris Agreement". However, leaders of the other G20 members agreed the accord was "irreversible". WHAT WAS AGREED IN PARIS? Climate change, or global warming, refers to the damaging effect of gases, or emissions, released from industry, transportation, agriculture and other areas into the atmosphere. The Paris accord aims to limit the global rise in temperature attributed to emissions. Only Syria and Nicaragua did not sign up. COUNTRIES AGREED TO: # Keep global temperatures "well below" the level of 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial times and "endeavour to limit" them even more, to 1.5C # Limit the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by human activity to the same levels that trees, soil and oceans can absorb naturally, beginning at some point between 2050 and 2100 # Review each country's contribution to cutting emissions every five years so they scale up to the challenge # Enable rich countries to help poorer nations by providing "climate finance" to adapt to climate change and switch to renewable energy Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies says the world's average temperature has risen by about 0.8C since 1880, two-thirds of that since 1975. US think tank Climate Interactive predicts that if all nations fully achieve their Paris pledges, the average global surface temperature rise by 2100 will be 3.3C, or 3.6C without the US.   ....

Published at: 2017-08-05 00:00:04

Dozens of Yemenis and Iranians who won the chance to immigrate to the United States sued the US State Department on Friday for not processing their visa applications after President Donald Trump's temporary travel ban was reinstated. The ban, which was blocked by lower courts before being partially reinstated by the Supreme Court in June, temporarily bars citizens of Yemen, Iran and four other Muslim-majority countries with no "bona fide" US connections from traveling to the United States. The Supreme Court ruling sharply limited the number of people affected by the ban. However, thousands of citizens of the six countries who won a randomized US government lottery last year to apply for a so-called green card - granting them permanent residence in the United States - were left in limbo. A recent email from the US government to lottery winners still awaiting their visas warned "it is plausible that your case will not be issuable" due to the 90-day travel ban. In the lawsuit filed in the US District Court in Washington D.C., more than 90 Yemeni and Iranian lottery winners said the US government was refusing to issue their visas - won under the "diversity visa" program - because of the travel ban. "This isn't right, fair, or lawful, and we are willing to do what it takes — including going to court — to fight for the rights of our clients," said Esther Sung, an attorney at National Immigration Law Center, one of the organizations representing the lottery winners. The US State Department declined to comment on pending litigation. In the lawsuit, the winners asked the government to process their visa applications before Sept. 30, which is when their eligibility for green cards expires. "A winning lottery spot is a rare and precious thing. If our clients do not receive their visas by September 30, they lose what may be their only chance at becoming Americans," said Omar Jadwat, a director at the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU is another of the groups that brought the suit on behalf of the winners. The "diversity visa" program, which attracts about 14 million applicants each year, was passed in its current form by Congress in 1990 to provide a path to US residency for citizens from a range of countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States.   ....

Published at: 2017-08-05 00:00:04