A gang of racketeers are smuggling ration books issued to Rohingya people by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees out of the country.
The syndicate has been operating their business at two registered refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, dodging the district administration for the last couple of years.
UNHCR, in association with the government has provided the books to Rohingyas to ensure various kinds of assistance, including food, clothes and medical care, for the migrated people.
The books have great demand among people who are illegally living in several western countries, prompting smugglers to ship the books to abroad.
The books contain no photograph of their bearers, rather an MRC number was given against each book to identify its owner, offering ample scope for their misuse.
With the help of forgers, many illegal residents in foreign countries replace the books’ information and use the book to entitle them to live in those countries as refugees. The issuance of ration books to displaced Rohingyas is among the reasons for their influx in Bangladesh, a source said.
A source who preferred to remain unnamed said the syndicate members purchase each ration book in between Tk1,000 and Tk5000 and sell those at Tk20,000 to Tk70,000.
The books are then shipped abroad where they are worth over Tk100,000 to the people who lack valid residential documents.
A good number of Rohingya refugees as well as many residents of Baharchara and Ramu upazilas have already moved to some western countries including France, the Netherlands, Italy and the USA, abusing the ration book system over the years.
According to senior repatriation assistant of Cox’s Bazar Refugee, Relief and Repatriation Centre Shah Jahan, the district is home to two government camps where 24,700 refugees reside.
“Among them, some 14,000 refugees live at Nayapara camp of Teknaf, while another 10,700 refugees are dwelling at Kutupalang camp of Ukhiya,” he said.
The government issued ration books for the displaced Rohingyas in 1992, 1994 and 1997 to give them assistance.
“Many Rohingyas have fled from camps without submitting their ration books to us. They later sell the books to the members of smuggling syndicate, who then send those to outside of the country. There are some other Rohingyas who sell their books by choice and tell us the books got lost. Afterwards, they collect their rations through a special token for some days and finally receive new ration books,” Shah Jahan said.
In order to rectify the situation, he said, a new kind of ration books containing the bearers’ photographs would be issued from October 1.
“All the old ration books would be replaced with the new ones too. And even the new books would be hole-punched each time the bearers would receive their ration so that they cannot be used for human-trafficking anymore,” he said.
When contacted, a UNHCR official on condition of anonymity, said they were not supposed to prevent ration books’ misuse.
“The government is looking after the issue and it is necessary to make be sure that the deserving person receives the ration,” he said.
