Two passports, one number

Only the photo belongs to her. All other information that the passport carries is someone else's. And with this passport she flew to Qatar three years ago without any trouble. 

She is now traceless, and the authorities in Bangladesh cannot say anything about the woman except that the passport was last used to enter Malaysia two years ago.  

And the woman whose information was used in the passport is Josna Begum, a migrant worker who returned from Jordan last year. She is now facing difficulties in getting her Machine Readable Passport (MRP), because the fake Josna already took one bearing the same number. 

"I came to know about the incident on January 5 when officials at Munshiganj [her home town] passport office told me. I was utterly shocked and couldn't understand how another woman can use my information and have a duplicate of my passport," she told The Daily Star recently at the Agargaon passport office.

"I couldn't believe how it was possible since I was in Jordan at that time and had my hand-written passport with me," said Josna, a mother of two.

As The Daily Star dug deeper into the story, it found a syndicate of brokers, recruiting agents and a section of officials at passport offices across the country is involved in such forgery, which takes place quite often. 

Last year, the Department of Immigration and Passport's (DIP) internal probe found that one such syndicate issued at least 170 official passports to civilians between November 2014 and April 2015. The DIP then suspended a director, an assistant director and two employees for their involvement in the scam. 

Last month, the Anti-Corruption Commission arrested two suspended officials of the DIP for issuing official passports to private citizens. 

"All this proves that officials at the DIP either didn't check it [the documents] properly or they did the job in collusion with travel agents or brokers," a senior official at the DIP told The Daily Star, asking not to be named. 

HOW IT HAPPENED

In Josna's case, documents show that the MRP (BA 0306506) was given to that woman on January 29, 2014.

A group of brokers and officials at the DIP forged the data and picture of Josna from her hand-written passport. All her information had been copied onto the MRP of the fake Josna. 

There was one inconsistency, however, although it is not clear if that was intentional.

The name of Josna's husband is Tara Miah. But on the forged passport, Tara Mia is shown as the passport holder's father.

Sirjaul Islam Patwary of the DIP received the woman's application, according to documents obtained by The Daily Star.  

Asked why he received the application and processed it without verifying the documents, he said he had no idea of this fraudulence.

"I cannot say how this fraudulence occurred. But sometimes, we receive applications hurriedly due to huge work pressure,” said Sirajul, now posted in Narayanganj passport office as a deputy assistant director.

The phone number on the documents submitted by the woman was found switched off.

NO TRACE 

The papers the woman submitted for getting clearance from the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training shows that she would go to Qatar to work as a domestic help.

M/S Nemira Overseas, a recruiting agency in the capital's Kakrail, completed the process on February 3, 2014, on behalf of the woman.

Documents show that one Salem Obaid SS Alouz was her employer in Qatar.

Contacted, Rabiul Islam and Nasir Khan, owners of two recruiting agencies that helped her get visas to travel to Qatar twice, said they just processed her visa application.

"We had nothing to do with the passport," said Nasir.  

The Bangladesh embassy in Qatar said the woman entered the Gulf country in February 2014, but her visa was cancelled on May 30 that year. 

"Since her visa was cancelled, we can assume that she is not staying in Qatar anymore," said Sirajul Islam, a counsellor at the embassy.

The Special Branch of Police in Dhaka said the passport was used for the last time in 2014 to travel to Malaysia. So it is likely that the woman is there.

But the Bangladesh mission in Kuala Lumpur said they had no information about her. 

FAKE BIRTH CERTIFICATE 

The birth certificate was issued on June 15, 2011, by Narayanganj City Corporation.

That's puzzling because the permanent address used in the passport is in another district, Munshiganj. 

Dr Hasib Mahmud, who signed the birth certificate as a medical officer of the city corporation, said he had done his routine job after the ward councillor concerned gave his approval to issue the certificate.

The birth certificate bears the signature of Md Yunus Miah whose designation is mentioned as councillor of ward-2. 

The website of the city corporation does not list any Yunus Miah as its councillor.

Asked about this, Hasib said he could not remember any name now.

JOSNA IN TROUBLE

Josna is facing problems in getting her passport now.

Having worked for two years as a housemaid since November 2013 in Jordan, she returned home in October last year.

In December, she completed all necessary procedure for the MRP. When she went to collect her digital passport, she came to know about the fraudulence.

For the last eight months, whenever she went to the Munshiganj office, officials told her to contact the Dhaka office.

Officials at the DIP said they were still investigating the forgery, and would give Josna the passport only after cancelling the one issued to the women. 

"I don't know when the problem would be over. I need to go abroad again for work, but I'm helpless as I am yet to get my passport,” she said yesterday.