At least 549 foreign nationals are detained in various jails in the country as of on November 1, State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan informed parliament yesterday.
Of the detained, 393 are under trial while 76 are convicts, he said replying to a star-marked question from AKM Mayeedul Islam, lawmaker from Kurigram 3.
The detained are citizens of India, Myanmar, Pakistan, Nepal, Peru, Algeria, Cameroon, Nigeria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand and Sri Lanka, Asaduzzaman said.
Last Friday, detectives in Dhaka detained 31 more foreign nationals from 10 African countries – a move that will surely add to the count of foreigners in jail. The arrests came as a result of the first large-scale drive conducted by the DB police against illegal foreigners.
The move followed the murder of Uttara O-level student Zubair Ahmed by Abuubaida Kadir, an Algerian illegally living in Bangladesh for 14 years. More than 300 foreigners living in Gulshan, Rampura and Uttara areas were screened.
Jamalpur 2 MP Faridul Haque Khan asked the state minister for home if it was true that many Bangladeshis make more than one passport to join the IS in its “holy war” in the middle east, and what measures has the government taken to counter this phenomenon.
Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu answered the question in the absence of the state minister, saying there was no scope for a person to acquire more than one passport in the current automated, technology-based system.
He said such duplication was impossible since the passport authorities issue machine-readable passports after automated scrutiny of detailed information, especially the national ID cards and birth registration certificates. The system also registers fingerprints of applicants.
“When required, the Special Branch of Police investigates the accuracy of the information,” he added.
Responding to another question, Amu informed the House that since the introduction of the MRP programme, over 8.6 million passports had been issued as of November 5.
Passport offices across the country issue about 15,000 MRPs daily, he added.