Special Passports for 69,000 Rohingya in Saudi Arabia: 24,300 Already Delivered, the Rest by December

Some 69,000 Rohingya in Saudi Arabia — forcibly displaced citizens of Myanmar — are receiving special passports. Passports for 24,300 of them have already been delivered into the hands of Rohingya in Saudi Arabia, sent to them through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from the Ministry of Home Affairs. The rest will receive their passports by December this year.

The Ministry of Home Affairs held its latest meeting on the matter on September 23. Discussions on issuing the remaining passports were finalised there, according to ministry sources.

Asked about it, Ziauddin Ahmed, additional secretary (immigration wing) at the Ministry of Home Affairs, said more than 24,000 passports have already been issued, and preparations are under way to issue the rest.

Ziauddin Ahmed added that these people are not receiving passports as ordinary citizens of Bangladesh; they are being given a kind of special passport. The passport will serve as their identity document. However, they will not be able to return to Bangladesh with it, nor will they become citizens of Saudi Arabia.

Another source at the home ministry said many Rohingya had gone to Saudi Arabia in the past with handwritten Bangladeshi passports, and those passports expired over time. The Saudi government is now pressing for their renewal. When the matter came up during the interim government, consent was given to issue the passports.

An official concerned, speaking on condition of anonymity, said several national interests are tied to such a decision. The government initially tried to avoid issuing the passports, but finally had to decide on it after considering various factors, including the fear of a negative impact on Bangladesh's labour market in Saudi Arabia.

After the BNP formed the government, Saudi ambassador to Bangladesh Abdullah Zafar bin Abiah paid a courtesy call in April on Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed at the Secretariat. At that meeting, the ambassador raised the issue of special passports for the 69,000 Myanmar citizens in Saudi Arabia and stressed completing the process quickly.

The home minister said at the time that 22,000 Rohingya had already been given Bangladeshi passports on the basis of necessary information and evidence. A special team had been sent from Bangladesh to speed up issuing passports to the rest, and those who have the required documents or meet the set conditions are receiving passports quickly, he said.

Sources concerned say the special passports given to the Rohingya carry a special serial number. Their biometric information, including fingerprints, iris scans and facial photographs, is being stored in the national database, so they can be easily identified at airports and elsewhere. Measures have also been kept so that they cannot obtain a Bangladeshi national identity card (NID) in future. The nationality field of the passport also mentions that they were expelled from Myanmar.

Asif Munir, who works on migration and refugee issues, said Bangladesh has fallen under a kind of obligation in giving passports to these people. They had gone to Saudi Arabia many years ago with Bangladeshi passports, one way or another, and those passports have now expired, which is why the question of issuing new ones has arisen. However, there are allegations that many of them obtained their earlier passports through various illegal means, and for that reason Bangladesh initially did not want to renew them.

Asif Munir added that Saudi Arabia also considers it necessary to identify these people for its own security, and the Saudi authorities are emphasising identity documents to ensure they cannot become involved in any wrongdoing there. Bangladesh also has a large labour market with Saudi Arabia. Even with special passports, however, these Rohingya will not return to Bangladesh; the migration expert believes they will remain in Saudi Arabia.