A NEWS report in an English daily on Thursday said at least 250 foreigners were arrested in 2013 on charge of involvement in various crimes including currency forgery, drug rackets, illegal VoIP business, arms trafficking and gold smuggling. The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) arrested 199 and filed cases against them while RAB arrested 52 including 12 of their local counterparts.
Reports said more than five lakh foreigners are now working in the country illegally and the number is only increasing taking advantage of lack of vigilance by law enforcers and other regulatory bodies such as the Board of Investment (BOI) which is responsible for issuing work permit to expatriate workers. The exponentially high figure is quoted by different agencies against a paltry figure of 12,000 in the official registers. We just say, regulators indifference is otherwise harming the interest of the state. It is not acceptale.
Reports said foreigners enter the country as tourist and then take jobs overnight without work permits with the help of their friends and country men already working in factories, mainly in the RMG plants. They mostly destroy passports and engage in VoIP business, buying houses, shipbuilding, IT services, NGOs and so on. They mostly come from India, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Cameron, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and such other nations. Rohingyas constitute a big part of these illegal workers.
Bangladesh is a country with pervasive poverty and working to come out of the poverty level at the grassroots. When its own nationals are fighting inadequate place in the job markets, the influx of foreign workers poses a big threat to the national economy and its security. But foreign workers are making way as some local companies hire them for various reasons. But Indian workers are often blamed for unrest in the garment sector while foreigners from African countries are running drug and currency trafficking. Expatriates from Pakistan and Sri Lanka are also blamed for currency and drug trafficking. They are not paying tax and moreover laundering over $ 4 billion a year; of which alone 3.7 billion is reportedly going to India.
We know that our internal security and vigilance services are seriously lacking the outreach to foreign criminal gangs in the country while they are busy chasing the opposition political party leaders and workers. The priority should have been otherwise.
We therefore ask the authorities concerned to take note of the unfolding threats at the job market at a time when the country’s labour market is not enough to provide a workplace to annual new entrants. Moreover the number of unemployed graduates is steadily rising and they must have workplace instead of foreigners chasing them out of job. We suggest that the government must carry out survey at every workplace to identify the presence of illegal foreign workers and scan them as per the law.
The department of immigration and special branch of police, banks and travel agencies need to be taken under an effective networking to carry out the scan. We must do it not only to protect the job market but also before they may commit any major crime.
