Unwelcome foreigners in a hospitable country

A thriller by popular writer Kazi Anwar Hossain opens with an eerie feeling hitherto unknown to the local readers. The first few lines of the crime-fiction narrate: The residents of Dhaka have all of a sudden begun to feel puzzled to watch fleeting glimpses of Black Africans among the crowds in their city. How could so many tall, sinewy young men enter the city all at a time! They are on a secret crime-related mission, the author informs the readers as he takes them all the way to a Sub-Saharan African country. The Bengalee private sleuth Kuasha unearths a mind-boggling criminal network in deep forests in the west-coast country of the continent. The plot was set in the 1960s.
The recent arrests of a number of Africans in Dhaka uncannily resemble the thriller's story, in a different way though. The incident is no fiction. It points to a disturbing development when it comes to crime-borne threats posed by foreigners living in the country's urban areas illegally.
The Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan  Police (DMP) swooped down on the African-dominated foreigners recently. Many of them have long been living in Dhaka without proper documentation. Passports and visas of some have long expired.
A lot of them could not show any passport at all. In the first raid, 31 undocumented aliens were picked up from different parts of the capital covering far-flung areas of Banosree neighbourhood to Uttara. Afterwards, six more Africans were detained from the city's Moghbazar and Uttara areas for overstaying in the country. The operation was conducted by Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) personnel.
According to the news media quoting law enforcement authorities, while in Dhaka the illegal foreigners have for many years been engaged in various types of criminal activities. Those include killings, smuggling, drug-peddling, forging currency notes, and other underground operations.
The Africans detained included those from Nigeria, Uganda, Cameroon, Gambia, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Kenya, Togo, Mali, Mozambique, Zambia, Chad and Liberia. Over two weeks ago, an O' Level male student in Dhaka was murdered by the national of a northern African country.
In fact, it is this incident that has prompted the law enforcers to monitor the activities of these foreigners, leading to the raids and arrests. The arrested illegal aliens have been overstaying in the country for two to 12 years.
Although foreigners in Dhaka and other large cities of the country are fast becoming a rare sight, many still live in Dhaka keeping themselves away from the general people. They carefully avoid crowded areas. Even 15-20 years back, nationals from different countries would be seen moving normally amid the mostly friendly locals in the capital.
A large number of them were Americans and Europeans, as well as Japanese --- especially tourists. Diplomats, and officials and staff working at foreign embassies, international organisations and NGOs could frequently be seen in the select zones of the city.
On being served 'notes of alert' by their governments and the head offices abroad that followed fear of terror attacks, the foreigners in Bangladesh restricted their movement to smaller areas.
They eventually vanished from the view of the public. The Africans, however, have always been a rare spectacle in Dhaka, at least in the streets and crowded places. Their present tendency to remain out of public view is perhaps a ploy to evade the long hand of law. Yet the reality is there are about 8,000 undocumented Africans living illegally in the capital who are involved in myriad types of crimes.
A startling fact about the foreigners staying in Dhaka through dubious means: there are around 0.10 million (one lakh) of them now living in the capital. They are mostly from Sub-Saharan Africa and some Southeast Asian nations. The intelligence sources of police suspect them of being involved in numerous types of criminal activities.
One thing appears to be remaining out of focus in the illegal foreigners' episode. As many of these aliens' identification documents, including passports and visas, are phony or have been tampered with, we cannot say for sure that they have not entered the country to carry out terrorist activities.
Some of the Sub-Saharan and African Sahel-region countries these days are torn by terror violence with roots lying elsewhere. The spill-over effect of these terror activities on Bangladesh cannot be ruled out.
The arrests of mere 37 foreign crime-suspects, out of thousands, will only add to many people's worries and trepidation. It seems to be just the tip of the iceberg. That's where the fear is.
With the arrest of these foreigners, the law enforcement agencies and the other relevant government authorities have been tasked with a formidable challenge: uprooting a menace that has the potential for snowballing into a big law and order problem.
The measures should begin with putting in place a strict surveillance on the suspiciously moving foreigners. As reported in the media, the law enforcers have detected 350 locations used by the illegal foreigners.  Hotels, guesthouses, rooms on rent, and even suburban residences, in Dhaka ought to be brought under the law enforcers' sharp watch.
Raids on suspected dens need to be strengthened. However, all illegally staying foreigners may not be criminals. Some are compelled to overstay on their being linked to a badly needed job, and also due to their inability to arrange necessary legal papers. But, then, they can also be prosecuted for flouting rules under the relevant foreigners act. Overstaying in a foreign country is itself a criminal offence.
Bangladesh has, down the ages, been welcoming people from abroad. In the distant past, scores of foreign traders, seafarers, tourists and preachers have settled down in this land. Through inter-racial marriages, many foreigners and their cultures have grown fresh roots in the country.
Those were the good old days in a world without inviolable national borders. Times have changed so rapidly! You might end up in jail for an error made by the immigration personnel at a foreign country's port of entry, or even those in your own country.
In a fast changing world, with the accompanying ills and hazards, illegal foreigners are suspected of being linked to questionable activities. This stark reality unfolds in the countries with little prospects for fortune-making. The present state of its economy has no reason to lure foreigners from other countries to Bangladesh.     

shihabskr@ymail.com