Rohingyas’s Bid to Get NID: Ctg UP chairmen giving certificates with fake identities
Union parishad chairmen in several upazilas of Chattogram have allegedly been issuing citizenship certificates to Rohingyas, paving the way for the refugees to eventually obtain Bangladeshi national identity card or passport.
Many of these refugees have fled from the camps in Cox’s Bazar and came to Chattogram where local influential persons are giving them shelter and helping them get included in the voters’ list, officials said.
“We came to know that some UP chairmen are issuing certificates to Rohingyas due to their own political interests and a section of local influential persons have given shelter to them in hilly and remote areas of Patiya upazila,” Habibul Hasan, upazila nirbahi officer of Patiya, told The Daily Star.
On August 28, he issued letters to the municipality mayor and 16 UP chairmen and members, asking them not to provide shelter to Rohingyas.
The UNO also used loudspeakers, asking locals not to shelter any refugees fleeing the camps.
“I have also sent copies of the letter to the deputy commissioner and deputy director [local government] of Chattogram,” the UNO said.
“We have told all the chairmen and mayors about the issue and asked them to be cautious while issuing certificates,” said Chattogram DC Eliash Hossain.
A few days ago, administration officials in Patiya had cancelled the birth certificate of a woman, who went by the name of Tasmida Akhter, after learning that she was a Rohingya, UNO Habibul said.
The woman was married to one Abdul Kader of Barlia union and had been living there, officials found out.
At Patiya UNO office, several locals told this correspondent that the refugees who managed to flee the camps had been living in the remote areas of Kelishahar, Haidgaon and Kachua unions.
They added that some of the refugees have been entering Chattogram city by boarding local trains from Chandanaish and Patiya.
The issue had also been discussed in recent meetings of law enforcement agencies.
The focus on the issue has intensified since August 18 when Election Commission officials in the port city detained a Rohingya woman and a man, who went to the EC office to receive the woman’s smart NID card. Officials found that she had a fake NID card, but her information was saved in the EC database. The incident is under investigation.
Former expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment minister Nurul Islam said, “During my tenure, we found that thousands of Rohingyas holding Bangladeshi passports have already gone to different foreign countries and our workers are facing different problems due to this.”
The overseas job market for Bangladeshi people will shrink if Rohingyas keep getting Bangladeshi passports and going abroad. Besides, Bangladesh has to bear the responsibility if the Rohingyas involve in unlawful conduct overseas, he added.
On July 30, Patiya police sent back 30 Rohingyas to Cox’s Bazar from Haidgaon.
Nurul Kader, a resident of Kachua union, said, “The Rohingyas, who came to the area about 15 to 20 years ago, are providing shelter to the ones who entered into Bangladesh in 2017.”
On August 28, divisional passport officials detained a suspected Rohingya man, who went by the name Faisal and claimed that he was from Sitakunda. He also had documents vouching for his origin in the area.
A Rohingya woman was held at the passport office on similar suspicions on August 22.
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