Hundreds of thousands of the Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar received Bangladeshi passports not by fraudulent means, but by a military regime, which granted them passports in violation of its law that prohibits such practice, officials said. Issuing of Bangladeshi passports to foreign nationals over the years has become counterproductive for the country, as the wage earning Bangladeshis and the country have to shoulder the bad name of the criminal activities committed by the Rohingyas in the Middle East.
This bad name is also affecting Bangladesh’s image in the global labour market that is contributing heavily to the country’s economy in the form of remittance. Currently, the expatriates send over $15bn as remittance every year.
In 1978-79, Major General Ziaur Rahman, founder of the main opposition party BNP, ordered for issuing passports to the Arakanese Muslims who fled to Bangladesh as the military junta in the former Burma Ne Win launched a crackdown named “Operation King Gragon” in 1978. In 1982, the then Burmese government also revoked their nationality, making them stateless.
The operation resulted in an influx of thousands of Rohingya Muslims to Bangladesh.
Upon request from the then Saudi government, Dhaka and Islamabad came forward to rescue the Muslims persecuted by the majority Buddhists in the Burmese state of Arakan, on the other side of the Cox’s Bazar border.
Foreign ministry officials said the then Bangladesh president Maj Gen Ziaur Rahman and Pakistan president Gen Zia-ul-Haq promised the Saudi King that they would give passports to the Rohingyas, enabling them to fly to the kingdom via Bangladesh and Pakistan respectively.
However, no official record is available regarding the number of Rohingya Muslims who got Bangladeshi passports during Ziaur Rahman’s rule.
Expatriates’ Welfare Minister Mosharraf Hossain has recently said around 500,000 Rohingyas are living in Saudi Arabia with Bangladeshi passports. In Saudi Arabia, the Bangladeshi community is the largest [2 million] among all foreign nationals.
“Pakistan gave them passports with a BM [Burmese Muslims] code without having recognised them as Pakistan nationals. But the military ruler [in Bangladesh] issued them passports with Bangladeshi nationality. That was not only a historic mistake, but an offence too,” Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni told the Dhaka Tribune.
“Passports cannot be issued to any foreign national. We are trying to correct the mistake that the then government of the country made,” she said.
Dipu Moni also said the Saudi foreign minister had requested her to issue a document that would strip the Rohingyas of Bangladeshi nationality but would also contain some basic information necessary for their rehabilitation in the Kingdom as Myanmar Muslims.
“We do not want the Rohingya Muslims to suffer, but they must forego Bangladeshi nationality,” Dipu Moni said.
She believes the BNP government persuaded the policy of promoting the Rohingyas to serve their political interests.
The Rohingya Muslims have become a big problem in the greater Chittagong district. They, coupled with various environmental, economic and social problems, have contributed in the changes that have been taking place in the demographic pattern of the region.
Unofficial estimates say over half a million Rohungya Muslims, considered one of the most persecuted nations in the world, have sneaked into Bangladesh since 1992 when the military junta launched the second spell of massive crackdowns on them. At least 250,000 Rohingya Muslims entered Bangladesh to escape the atrocities perpetrated by the Myanmar military.
In line with a tripartite agreement involving Bangladesh, Myanmar and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, most of them returned to their homeland.
Around 30,000 of the refugees refused to go back and have been living in the camps in Cox’s Bazar since then.
Aid workers say, most of the repatriated Rohingyas have sneaked back into Bangladesh due to economic and security reasons.
Rohingyas in KSA must forgo Bangladeshi passports | Dhaka Tribune
