The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Photo  United Nations Refugee Agency - Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh B y Kailash Sarkar DhakaTribune July 2, 2013 There are around 30,000 registered Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh Left with limited choices because of their ‘statelessness’, many Rohingyas living in the country have chosen to live outside the law by paving the way for a section of people on both sides of the Bangladesh-Myanmar border to reap rich illegal dividends. They are getting increasingly involved with various criminal activities, including cross-border trading of drugs and firearms, helping them to be smuggled in and out of the country. A number of Rohingyas assuming the identities of Bangladeshis, with doctored passports and documentations, are also going abroad, especially to the Middle East. According to sources, unscrupulous officials at the passports and immigration departments and recruiting agencies, and their local agents in Cox’s Bazar, ‘help’ Rohingyas move out of the countr...

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni   Kamran Reza Chowdhury DhakaTribune: June 11, 2013 Saudi Arabia goes ahead to legalise Myanmar nationals Riyadh has requested Dhaka to provide documents on the Rohingya Muslims who entered Saudi Arabia through Bangladesh, as the country goes ahead to legalise Myanmar nationals, Foreign Minister Dipu Moni has said. Replying to a question from Awami League MP Nurul Islam, the minister told the House Monday that the BNP-Jamaat-government’s tacit support during 2001-2006, coupled with the corruption of the passport department helped the illegal Rohingyas to get Bangladeshi passports. “They received passports mainly from the Chittagong office. They started working in Saudi Arabia with legal documents,” Dipu Moni said. She said the Bangladesh consulate office in Jeddah stopped renewing passports issued during BNP’s rule. “I want to make it clear that the present government has not issued any passports to Rohingyas.” Th...