Before we can improve our passport ranking, our green booklet needs a facelift
Many countries change the colours and designs of their passports every decade or every generation. Unfortunately, ours look quite the same as it always was
I'll give it to you straight: unfortunately, the Bangladeshi passport has some major design flaws.
As disappointing as it is, our green coloured travel document is not a well-respected one on the international stage. For over a decade, the passport index has been publishing the value of world passports each year, and each year ours always gets a place among the bottom 10 passports of the world, only better than some countries ravaged by war or civil unrest. Many countries with a weaker socioeconomic situation than Bangladesh have a better ranking passport than ours.
This invites some questions: Do our bureaucrats ever notice how bad our passport still ranks despite the socioeconomic progress we have made in recent times? Do they not feel upset, disheartened, or even ashamed? Does it not motivate them to take steps to try and make the Bangladeshi passport a little bit better?
Thankfully, in 2020, the government finally introduced E-passports. Certainly, it's a step in the right direction. Yet our passport's rank in 2022 still remains at around the same place, while other nations climb up the passport ladder bit by bit each year.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
While our E-passport is an improved version of the outgoing Machine Readable Passports, a closer look reveals a major design oversight. I came upon this realisation during my research into the passports of different countries around the world. For starters, there is a huge mistake on the cover of our passport.
Almost all passports except ours boast the coat of arms or the national emblem of their respective country. Instead of our beautiful national emblem, a water lily surrounded by rice sheaves and topped by three jute leaves flanked by two stars on either side, we have the seal of the government on our passport, which frankly looks unattractive on the cover and reeks of lack of effort.
Many countries change the colours and designs of their passports every decade or every generation. Unfortunately, ours look quite the same as it always was. I hoped that with the introduction of the E-passport, we might at least get a sophisticated-looking passport, but alas!
It is high time for a national competition to redesign the appearance of our passport, just like Norway did with their current passport, and the best design should be incorporated into a new generation of Bangladeshi E-passports, preferably from 2025 on.
The new design should include a darker shade of green for the booklet and a more striking and showy golden colour for the typography and the emblem (see the examples: the new passports of Saudi Arabia and Taiwan, and the previous South Korean passport).
The design should also change on the inside, especially the personal information page, which should be more modern, minimalistic, and secure, yet beautiful. The addition of a third language in the passport, preferably French, would certainly make our passport look more global.
Another useful addition to the front cover would be a small bulging map of Bangladesh in one corner, so that our map still remains on the passport and so that it can act as an additional security feature.
It would be a long article if I were to discuss the poor ranking of our passport and what can be done to uplift it in today's fast paced and competitive world. But at least if our passport looked "cool" and well-designed, then we would have something to talk about.
Bangladesh, as a country, is full of potential. Even our passport has a lot of potential, perhaps even to be the strongest passport in the world. However, a lot needs to change before that. About a decade ago, a lot of other passports were weaker than ours, but since then many of them earned a respectable value.
Our neighbours India and China both had weak passports not too long ago, yet their citizens today can travel to a sizeable number of countries without needing visas or with access to e-Visas or "supplementary" visas, yet those countries do not provide the same facilities for Bangladeshis.
Unfortunately, this is due to a combination of several factors, ranging from miserable diplomatic relations with most countries of the world, to our low human development index, to the widespread circulation of fraudulent or forged passports and ID documents. Our very own socioeconomic condition, which gives rise to undocumented immigrants, and our own socio-cultural mentality, as well as our reputation, are all to blame.
What I mentioned in this article might not matter to most Bangladeshis in the country, but it does matter to the millions of Bangladeshis like us who either live abroad or travel abroad frequently. I really hope that our government seriously considers giving our passports a new, refreshing look. Then we can talk about how to improve our passport rank.
The design suggestions I made here could be used as guidelines for our passport's makeover. I did several rough sketches myself, but in all honesty, if I was a graphic designer, I would have submitted several design suggestions to the authorities already.
Manazir Islam is an urban planner, traveller and photographer
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.
