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In a global village, Bangladesh is certainly not a dream destination for migrant workers from around the world. Actually, the reverse is the case. A small country with an oversize population, has to look for works for the inflating ranks of its diaspora and workers, often unskilled and semi-skilled, abroad. However, this country also offers opportunities for foreign nationals to work here. But the mismatch of data once again leaves anyone looking for the correct figure in confusion with the Ministry of Home Affairs putting it at 24,966 and the National Board of Revenue estimating the number at 17,397 by June this year. A Bangla contemporary reported on Wednesday last that over 100,000 foreign nationals are staying here legally.
. Against 7.4 million Bangladeshi expatriates working abroad, according to a UN estimate in 2020 (which figure is unlikely to change much by now), the number of foreigners staying here with work permits and other assignments is puny indeed. But for a country where an outsize demography is primarily a curse but could be turned into a blessing, even this small number of foreign expatriates is too much. It is sad that the specialised service they render is beyond the capabilities of local university graduates and post-graduates.
Yet the expatriates from different countries residing here with jobs are not as big a headache as those staying here illegally. Reportedly 40,000 illegal foreign nationals have found Bangladesh a safe haven for carrying out various crimes, mostly of financial nature. They set up trap by offering precious gifts, operate online casino gambling, get engaged in the notoriety of credit card cloning and several other digital fraudulence in order to make unearned money and send those back home through hundi.
Clearly, these illegal immigrants, some of whom are reported to have destroyed their passports, have developed a criminal nexus and quite understandably they have done so with their local allies here. News of such clandestine financial crimes committed at a number of automated teller machine (ATM) booths and the use of subtle tricks in offering lucrative rewards to make unsuspecting people meet financial demands first has often made the rounds. But not enough has been done by the security agencies to nab and send them packing.
Although 730 foreign citizens have been accused of criminal activities over the past 12 years and currently more than 400 of them are interned in 68 prisons of the country, the illegal stay by as many as 40,000 illegal foreigners is proof enough that the issue has not been paid the attention it deserves. One of the answers to this intriguing issue is likely to be that birds of a feather flock together. If an inspector general of police (IGP) of Benazir Ahmed's notorious stature can prosper in an administrative environment, so can foreign nationals spreading a criminal network. If the men and women assigned the job of securing the country's financial accounts from intrusion by fraudsters themselves become grossly corrupt, their interests and those of the foreigners involved in similar activities are sure to find a meeting point. This perhaps explains why such a large number of illegal foreigners staying here with the dubious mission of stealing money were shown such laxity.
The special branch (SB) of the police keeps tab on foreign nationals staying here. It has its own excuses for not maintaining the accurate data of foreigners arriving in the country. But the home ministry has now issued a notification directing all foreigners staying here to update their work permits and other relevant documents immediately in favour of their service and other businesses. Legal action would be taken against those failing to comply with the order. Strangely, no deadline for getting the legal instruments updated has been mentioned. Is this a deliberate omission or a lack of seriousness on the part of the home ministry or the report carried in the contemporary missed it somehow?
A list of foreigners involved in crimes in the capital is far too short. Only 22 Chinese, 19 Nigerians, 12 Indians, four Japanese and three Cameroonians make up the list. But the 730 foreign nationals against whom cases have been filed over the past 12 years, Nigerians are at the top of the list with 91 of them being accused. Then again, of the more than 400 imprisoned, 70 have been pronounced guilty by the court, more than 200 are under trial and 150 are waiting for return to their homeland.
The highest number of criminal cases has reportedly been instituted under the Digital Security Act, 2018 and the Cyber Security Act, 2023. But apart from cyber crimes, foreigners are also found to be involved in crimes like women trafficking, sex crimes involving underage girls and women, pornography, smuggling of drugs and wild animals. What is surprising is that drug smuggling has not figured pronouncedly in the list of crimes foreigners are most likely to be involved in. Again, gold smuggling is a perennial problem here and without collusion between foreign gold smugglers and their local partners, this widespread network of smuggling could not operate. There is more than the eyes can meet. But in a country where corruption was more or less institutionalised, it is only natural that organised crime syndicates from foreign soils found it a safe haven for spreading their underworld missions in collaboration with their local counterparts.