Md Joynal Abedin Khan :
Several lakh foreigners have reportedly been living in the country without valid permission or after expiry of the tenure of their visas posing a serious threat to the law and order situation of the country, Home Ministry sources said.
According to sources of Special Branch (SB) of Police and the Security Control Organisation (SCO), around five lakh foreign nationals, including Muslim Rohingyas, have been living in the country for years.
State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal on June 30 told the Parliament that about 960 foreigners from different countries were living in Bangladesh after expiry of the tenure of their visas, though the number of the foreigners is 1,11,575.
An official of the SB mentioned that more than two lakh foreigners from different countries are officially working in different government and non-government offices of which around 1,000,00 people only have permission to live in the country.
He claimed that it was impossible to ascertain the accurate data about the foreigners in the country as they have no update list in this regard.
“If we fail to make a proper list of the legal and illegal foreigners, then we will face serious threat from them ,” he said. A significant number of foreigners hailing from Cameroon, Algeria, Ghana, Nigeria, Congo, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Philippines, Afghanistan, Iraq,
Pakistan, Sri Lanka, China, South Korea, Palestine, Taiwan and India are also involved in crimes, the SB man said.
Earlier in 2011, the government, for the first time, had taken a move to prepare comprehensive data by compiling profiles of foreigners working with different commercial and industrial organizations and other work places in the country. The move had been taken, as the number of foreigners working with the country’s different types of commercial and trade organisations has increased sharply amid concerns that they are diminishing job prospect of the locals.
Meanwhile, the foreigners are becoming desperate day by day in the absence of surveillance by the law enforcers and are involved in horrified crimes like murder, human trafficking, bank heist, illegal drug trading and smuggling as well as cyber crimes and fake money business, Intelligence sources said.
The Rohingas and Africans are mainly engaged in different crimes, specially murder, human trafficking, drug smuggling and gold trafficking, they said.
Police Headquarter sources said, a list of 15,000 complaints already have been prepared against 20 countries’ citizens in last five years. About 79 foreigners were jailed for their committing crimes, they said.
An instruction has been issued from the police headquarters to the 64 superintendents of police and all metropolitan commissioners to prepare a list of the illegal foreigners, they added.
“At present, there are about 700 foreign nationals in jail-hazat in the country. Many of them have completed their jail term, but nobody is coming to take them back to their homes,” the sources said.
In this context, members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in a drive arrested 10 people, including nine foreigners on charge of making fake notes from in the city’s Bashundhara residential area on Sunday night.
Of the foreigners, six from Cameroon, two from Lesotho and one from Congo, said Mizanr Rahman Bhuyan, Assistant Director, Legal and Media Wing of the elite force.
Few days ago, Police detained 44 Nepal nationals from Mirpur DOHS in the capital city for allegedly overstaying in the country and pushed back them.
One May 24, Police arrested another Chinese national from his rented apartment in the capital’s Uttara on suspicion of his involvement in an ATM card scam. His name is Chen Xu, 42.
Earlier on January 22, a German national Thomas Piotr was arrested over ATM card forgery who came to Bangladesh on a fake polish visa. Piotr formed a forgery group staying here over two years. Several foreigners and and Bangladeshi nationals are also involved with the gang whose name was already disclosed to the law enforcers.
On March 4, RAB arrested 12 foreign nationals from different parts of the capital on charges of forgery on different social media including Facebook using innovative techniques.
Algerian national Abuubaida Kadir, the prime accused in last year’s killing of O-level student Zubair Ahmed in Uttara, is one of those overstaying in Bangladesh for over a decade.
In December 2013, the Rapid Action Battalion detained 37 foreigners who had been running VoIP business at an Uttara flat.
Inspector General of Police A K M Shahidul Haque told the reporters, “The person whoever commits crime would be brought to justice. The foreigners would not be spared. They would be tried under Bangladesh law or they would be sent back to their respective country.”
He also said that the law enforcers continued their massive drive against illegal foreigners.
The IGP also claimed that the concerned police department already has been asked to make a list of expired visa holders.
