TDS Desk:

Rohingyas refugees in Cox’s Bazar are using illegal means and fake data to procure citizenship documents, thus becoming Bangladehis officially.

Over the years, police arrested many involved in the scam, but shortly upon release, they return to their profitable hobbies.

A Rohingya named Hafez Ahmed, 50, lives in Ghona, Dakkhin Pahartali Sattar, Ward No 7 in Cox’s Bazar town. He came to Bangladesh only a few years ago.

Hafez obtained birth registration certificate and national identification card (NID) using fake information. Police caught up with him, and put him behind bars for seven months. But soon upon release, he embarked on a process to procure similar documents for his daughter, Jannat Ara, and many more refugees. He eventually succeeded in getting the NID card (NO 9179099743) for his daughter.

He then tried to get passport for her. He thought that trying at the passport office in Cox’s Bazar was risky, because he was previously arrested in the district. So, he tried he luck at the passport office in Noakhali, and successfully secured the final delivery date. Later, Cox’s Bazar Model Police Station seized the delivery slip.

Another Rohingya Syed Alam lives in the same area as Hafez. He is involved in a racket that procures birth certification, citizenship certificate and NID for around two lakh fellow refugees living in the Barmaia neighbourhood in Pahartali area of Cox’s Bazar. The racket visits different union parishad offices of the country to build a rapport with local cash-hungry middlemen.

The middlemen help obtain birth certificates with family data that match the info of legitimate Bangladeshi citizens.

Passport offices are now prone to mistakenly certify Rohingyas as Bangladeshi citizens as they have become too reliant on the now-defunct police verification system. Earlier, the passport officials did limited scrutiny taking it for granted that police had done the task for them. Now, they are having to alter their approach.

Bangladeshi middlemen at the passport offices change the picture and other info of Rohingya applicants, if their fake NID and birth certificate numbers happen to match those of legal citizens.

Two arrested ware made over this fake scheme in January, said Mobarak Hossain, assistant director at the Cox’s Bazar Regional Passport Office, when speaking with the Kaler Kantho on Thursday. Two women refugees named Rabeya Khatun Rafia, 16, and Maryam Bibi, 22, applied for passports using their fake birth certificates. Noticing their suspicious moves, the officials thoroughly checked the certificates and found they belong to people of Satkhira. The two were promptly handed over to the police, Mobarak said.

Cox’s Bazar Rohingya Resistance Committee President Mahbubur Rahman told journalist that a huge number of Rohingya refugees are obtaining valid citizenship documents using fake data. On 8 May, he filed a complaint with the Cox’s Bazar Sadar Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) providing data of nine Rohingyas, who successfully procured NID cards despite providing inconsistent data of parents.

Many are enrolling with schools and madrasas in Cox’s Bazar without having any valid document. Once they complete their studies, they could get HSC and SSC certificates, effectively certifying them as Bangladeshi citizens, Mahbubur said.