Rohingyas are returning to Bangladesh from Saudi Arabia with illegal documents. In the last two months, over a hundred of them returned from the middle-eastern country with fake Bangladeshi passports and ended up at the camps in Cox’s Bazar.
The returnees said that since Myanmar did not want to take back the Rohingyas they had to bribe Bangladeshi diplomats and brokers in Saudi Arabia to obtain documents and take shelter at the camps.
“The Rohingyas don’t have any country to call their own. Hence we don’t get any diplomatic facilities,” said Sana Ullah who returned after spending two years in detention.
He added that many like him obtain travel documents as Bangladeshi nationals from the diplomats posted in Saudi Arabia in exchange for Tk 50,000-100,000.
An employee of Bangladesh Refugee, Relief and Repatriation Commission requesting anonymity said that several Saudi-returned Rohingyas have written to the camp in-charges seeking permission for joint registration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Bangladesh is currently sheltering over 1.1 million Rohingyas at Teknaf. There are allegations that many are still trying to illegally migrate to Malaysia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia and other countries.
Shamsul Alam, 32, said that he obtained a fake passport and went to Saudi Arabia to work in a furniture shop in 2013.
He said that the Saudi police detained him four years later. “I spent two years in jail. After that, I contacted a broker who connected me to a Bangladeshi diplomat employed there.”
Alam said that he paid 1700 riyals (around Tk 40,000) to return and another 50 Riyals when he was detained at Dhaka airport.
“I finally reached my family living at the camps in Teknaf. They fled from Myanmar two years ago,” he said adding that eight others returned with him.
Mohammad Harun, 50, another Rohingya returnee from Saudi wrote to the camp in-charge to be registered with the UNHCR.
He told Bangla Tribune that he went to Saudi Arabia four years ago to work in a shop. “I spent Tk 500,000 to obtain a Bangladeshi passport to go there. But I stayed back after my Akama [work permit] expired. Before returning here, I was in jail after THE Saudi police caught me.”
Many like Harun reiterated that they returned to the country after bribing Bangladeshi officials posted in Saudi.
However, UNHCR Cox’s Bazar spokesperson Louise Donovan said that they had no information about Rohingyas from Saudi Arabia returning to Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Refugee, Relief and Repatriation Commission representative Khalid Hossain said that he had received several applications from Saudi-returned Rohingyas.
“I have informed the top authorities but no one has been given permission yet,” he said.
Refugee, Relief and Repatriation Additional Commissioner Mohammad Shamsuddouza said he was aware of the matter. “The issue is being given utmost importance.”
Responding to queries on how passports were being obtained, a foreign ministry official said that the home ministry looked into such matters.
“Around 60 people work in our mission in Jeddah and only two are from the foreign ministry but they aren’t involved with passport work,” he said.
He added that the home ministry handled the issuance of passports at the Saudi mission.