The home ministry is likely to issue an order for ensuring better verification during the issuance of passports, in a bid to prevent Rohingya refugees from getting passports through illegal means.
The decision may come from a ministry meeting, chaired by Senior Secretary CQK Mustaq Ahmed today, on Myanmar refugees and illegal intruders.
“It is our duty to protect the interest of the country and we would discuss various issues including checking illegal entrance of Rohingyas,” home ministry Additional Secretary Kamal Uddin Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune.
Seeking anonymity, a senior home ministry official also said: “It may be decided that the agencies concerned would verify closely so that the Rohingyas do not get passports illegally.”
Although there is no official figure, a large number of Rohingyas are reported to have secured Bangladeshi passports through different methods.
Cox’s Bazar Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Nurul Amin told the Dhaka Tribune that Rohingyas pretend to be relatives of local residents and marry local women to get a permanent address. Through such techniques, they get passports, he admitted.
“Still we remain strict and try to check while issuing passports,” the deputy commissioner said, adding that very few such passports are issued from the district.
He also said Rohingyas get passports from Dinajpur and Panchagar.
Police Superintendent (immigration) Nafiul Islam at Shahajalal International Airport said: “We detect at least five passports of Rohingyas every day.”
He, however, said the number of such passports has decreased recently.
“We remain alert so that Rohingyas do not get passports,” Director General of Department of Immigration and Passports Abdul Mabud told the Dhaka Tribune over phone yesterday.
Passports are not given to anyone other than Bangladeshi citizens, he added.
Meanwhile, officials claimed that many Rohingyas had stained the image of Bangladesh by going to Saudi Arabia with Bangladeshi passports and committing crimes there.
Lt Col Abu Jar Al Zahid, commanding officer of BGB 42 Battalion in Teknaf, said Rohingyas continue their attempts to intrude into Bangladesh.
“We have pushed back over 300 Rohingyas in January,” he said, adding that there was an influx of Rohingyas following recent violence in Myanmar.
Officials of Border Guard Bangladesh said the country faced multifarious problems because of illegal intrusion of the Rohingyas.
“The Rohingyas commit serious crimes in Bangladesh which create social problems,” a senior BGB official said, seeking anonymity.
Bangladesh currently has 30,000 registered refugees in two official camps, while more than three lakh unregistered refugees from Myanmar reportedly live in makeshift camps and in villages in Cox’s Bazar.
