“Tango,
please come”, the immigration officer on the right side of the immigration box
under the “SAARC/Foreign Passport” said to his radio. I am standing in the
line, waiting for my turn next. Tango is relatively younger than the
immigration officer at that desk. While Tango at his desk, the officer told
him, “This is not working”. This event took place in Dhaka International
Airport arrival counter procceding to immigration in March 2012.
Tango
told him, “Go back to previous page”. Man said, “It is not working”.
Then
Tango lean over and hit the key. Man accepted the help unwillingly. Tango left
to other counter.
After
a minute, the man, I mean the officer, screamed, “Tango, Over, Tango, Over”.
The officer shouted to his boss (someone seems like in-charge), “why he left,
this things does not work. Ask him to come immediately, ask him to keep
standing here”.
Tango
came, said: “get out from this page and go to the main page”. “This does not go
to main page, where is main page?” said the officer. Tango said, “You are not
doing it right, do this way”.
Tango
leaned over the cubicle. “Are you teaching me computer?” the officer
shouted.
“Did
you see this, did you see”, the officer looking over the other counters, trying
to get attention of other immigration officers. “See sir, you have to do
something, this “ সেদিনের
পোলা আমার এ কম্পুতার শিখাএ (young man teaching me computer)”. “You have to do the
judgment”, officer trying to get his boss’s agreement.
“You
stay here and make this thing work”, said the officer to Tango assertively.
This is becoming a show and the poor customer at his counter is trying grasp
what is happening.
Anyway,
this drama end and the poor customer get his passport back. I am next. I am not
sure what I am heading into.
I
handed over my passport. The officer took it. It appeared to me that he is
typing something, one key at a time and probably end up in the same situation
like while serving previous customer. “Tango come-in, Tango come-in” and the
saga continue ….
Fast
forward 6 months from March 2012 to September 2012. We are at the arrival hall
of the Dhaka International Airport. The Arrival Hall is full. I had an
opportunity to go through the busiest International arrival halls in world
like, LAX, JFK, SFO, John Wayne, O’Hare, Heathrow, Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong
and so on for the last 20 years. They are bigger and lots more people arriving
at the same time in the arrival halls.
However,
in Dhaka airport we are standing in the arrival hall, one hour goes, two hour
goes, someone vomit on the line. We are standing next to the vomit, waiting for
the mercy of the immigration officers to give us the privileges to let us into
their beloved country.
In
front of me, there is a group of 11 high schoolers from Australia. I was chit
chatting with them to pass the boring time. I was tired of watching people in
the line, I was tired of watching people in uniform (custom or immigration or
people with badges) wondering around in front of the counters, back of the
counters, by our sides; they act busy; however I don’t see them doing
anything. They don’t bother noticing the vomit in the floor.
I
asked the Australian High school students, how many days they will be staying,
what places they are going. They told me that they will be staying in
Bangladesh for 16 days and has an open schedule to visit places.
They
seems like came from a Christian school and most likely will try to do
missionary work, I thought. I noticed that they dressed appropriately to blend
the local culture and tradition as well as to adjust the weather. I advised
them to drink plenty of water to hydrate and try to stock good source of clean
drinking water.
In
the line next to mine, there was an old man of sixty or so. I notice him
exhausted. He is saying to himself, “This is unacceptable”. He was in the
“Foreign Investor/Businessmen” line. “Business is good here, that’s why I have
been coming here, but this is outrageous, I am willing to pay more for faster
service”.
I
asked him, “What do you do”. He said, “I am in pharmaceuticals, I teach
pharmaceuticals companies”. I am exploring business here and I am also
interested in pharmaceuticals so I asked him which company.
He
said with a look of a professor, “All of them, Incepta, Beximco, Square, you
name it”. “Business is good, but I cannot take it anymore. I think this is my
last one, that’s it”.
I
told him, “You got to excuse these people, you should not deprive the country
or the companies because of this”.
“I
am going to ruin my whole day, I could have done lot more with these three
hours” he murmured. Later I found someone waiting for him with a placard,
“Mike Castle”. “This is my last, never gonna come again.”
I
am not expert on how to do immigration task. As I said I have been through a
lot of immigrations. Just yesterday I came from Singapore, it took less than 60
second, I repeat less than 60 second to do the immigration. Not to mention JFK
or LAX where thousands of flights arrive and take off every day.
My
common sense tells me that an immigration officer looks at the passport and
visa, record it and let you go. Of course there are people that they screen,
list of unwanted people that needs to pattern match. Those are all done in the
back ground by the software program.
But
for the people who already in the system, all they have to do is to enter the
passport number or the name. All previous record comes and you just match the
passport photo with the person in front of you. It is less than a minute job.
Of course if you have “one finger typer” it will take 20 second for 10 digits
and still you may be done with in a minute. I wonder why it takes that long
time, what in in that screen?
I
should not confuse you by only focusing in one event and that event is not the
sole responsible for the slowness in the processing counters of the immigration
desks. Rush hour management, study and understand the flight schedule and
allocate resources accordingly may be some of the bottlenecks.
Let
me finish the blog with a good one.
As
I said I was in Singapore last week, I had an incident at the Dhaka Airport. I checked
in, passed through the immigration. I sit in the lobby and filling up the
arrival cards for my destination. I try to keep up to date with my tasks.
I
had a passport cover or wallet, where I keep my passport, USD and some credit
cards. I pull out my passport and filled up the forms at hand. I put my
passport in my pocket and walk to the boarding gate 5. I entered in to the
boarding lounge and sit there in the waiting area in front of the TV. I want to
put the things where it supposed to be, so I reached out to my wallet or
passport cover, alas, it is not in my pocket.
A
shock waves flow through my spine! Where it might be? I rushed to the boarding
counter and wanted the other part of the boarding pass and go out; however
instead of giving me the other part, now they asked me to give my part to them
and go out to find my staff without any boarding passes at all.
Anyway,
I have no time for this, so I left my part and walking and running to the place
where I was filling up the forms.
I
see a person next to where I seat, probably a construction worker going abroad.
He is holding similar but little bigger cover. I asked him if he noticed any
passport cover with black leather. He said no.
Then
I noticed there are three people seating on the chairs that I was seating while
filling up the forms. They are holding something similar to my passport cover.
“It is mine”, I said. “Look here is my name in the passport and here is the
name in the AMEX credit card” I added.
The
men said, “We are planning to announce a lost and found. This sweeper lady
found it and give it to us” (they are with airport badges and yellow vest). I
looked at the passport cover, my USD were there, my hotel reservation letter
and AMEX card all in there. I thanked the sweeper and reward her handsomely and
went back to my flight.
I
was not expecting that I would get back to my USD or the AMEX card. At best I
could have found the black leather cover lying in the floor; so I was
contemplating to call the AMEX and freeze the account while I was rushing
through the walkways.
There
are people in Bangladesh who still has the moral values and does the right
thing; however we are getting it where least expected.
We
expect that our immigration officers are the brand managers of Bangladesh. They
are the first encounter to a foreign investor, a tourist or a foreign
businessman. The service they provide can make or break the country.
On
top of that they need to understand that they are not doing any favor to
anyone; they are paid to do the job right and make the customer happy who paid
for the service via travel tax, airport tax etc.
They
ought to ask this question to them if they are offered a “rotten mango” for
USD$1.00, will they buy it?
