Rohingya youth held at Ctg passport office

A Rohingya youth was detained today at the regional passport office at Panchlaish in Chattogram while trying to get a Bangladeshi passport.

Photo: Collected

The detainee was identified as Obaidul Haque (25), hailing from Himchhari-Rahmania under Chunti union of Lohagara upazila in Chattogram, according to the NID card he presented during document verification, reports our Chattogram staff correspondent.

He was caught while verifying his documents for the passport application and was later handed over to Panchlaish Police Station, Panchlaish Passport Office's Deputy Director (DD) Masaum Hasan told The Daily Star.

"Obaidul applied for a passport showing Bangladeshi NID card and documents of local administration. His fingerprint matched with one in the Rohingya database when we checked to verify it. Later, we also checked his Bangladeshi NID number and found the information in the NID server of the Election Commission," the official said.

"Both name and information in the NID server and the Rohingya database are same," said DD Masum Hasan.

The detainee is now in custody of Panchlaish Police Station and a filing of a case against him in this connection is underway, said Abul Kashem Bhuiyan, officer-in-charge of the police station.

There is widespread allegation that a syndicate is operating in the country illegally providing NID and documents of local administration to people from the Rohingya community, which enables them to often migrate to other countries as Bangladeshi citizens.

Last year, Chattogram police and passport officials said some Rohingya refugees were making Bangladeshi passports using forged NID cards with the help of some locals and Rohingya brokers.

The Rohingya people were using fake names and addresses while applying for the identification documents and a section of unscrupulous EC staffers were involved in syndicates providing forged NID cards to Rohingyas in exchange for money, they said.