The green passports that Bangladeshis carry while travelling to other countries are very much despised by the immigration officials at many international airports.
The immigration officials at many Asian airports do not hide their dislike to the holders of these passports while examining the travel documents. Their counterparts working at the airports of developed countries, however, do not usually express their distaste for the green passports. But they, on many occasions, make their holders to go through various types of hassles.
A case in point is the hassles that the Bangladeshi travellers have been reportedly facing after reaching the Kuala Lumpur airport. On occasions, the immigration officials are now refusing to accept the visas issued by the Malaysian High Commission in Dhaka. Often travellers are kept in detention centres on suspicion at the airport for days together and later deported. The detainees include tourists and businesspeople.
The Malaysian case may be an extreme one. But the fact remains that refusal to allow entry to green passport holders is also very usual at many other airports across the world. However, the nationals of other poor countries of Asia and Africa do often face identical treatment at many international airports.
The immigration officials exercise caution while granting entry on two counts--terror suspects and illegal job seekers. Most developed countries are not in a mood to welcome Muslim visitors for their security seasons. They, these days, look at every Muslim with suspicion.
However, security reasons usually do not come into play in a big way while issuing visa or granting entry to Bangladeshis. The recent terror incidents have forced many western missions in Dhaka to exercise caution about visa issuance. But some particular missions in Dhaka and immigration officials of a number of international airports try not allow entry of illegal job seekers.
The main reason for not liking the green passports in many countries is the illegal stay of many Bangladeshis. Moreover, wherever there is an attempt by a group of people to sneak into a country illegally, invariably some Bangladeshis would be found among them. Many Bangladeshis drowned in recent times while trying to reach the Italian shore from Libya along with many other nationals, including desperate refugees from war-torn Syrians.
It is, thus, hard to entirely blame Malaysian authorities for being extra cautious about the entry of Bangladeshis into Malaysia. They may have gone too far by not accepting visas issued by their own mission in Dhaka, but the ongoing crackdown on illegal immigrants has forced them to be so. More than half of the illegal immigrants rounded up during the ongoing crackdown are Bangladeshis.
The desperation noticed among the people to go abroad by any means and do even odd jobs against the payment of very unattractive wages does not match with the ongoing pace of economic growth of the country. When an economy grows at a rate of over 7.0 per cent there should be enough jobs to absorb a large number of workers entering the labour market annually.
There is no denying that enough employment opportunities are not being created despite economy growing at an impressive rate. Our policymakers should look into the issue of job creation. There has to be greater emphasis on manufacturing sector growth to achieve that objective. Skill development is another issue that has lately received attention of the policymakers. But that needs to be pursued in right direction with all seriousness.
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