A significant number of foreign residents have been living in the country for an extended period, many of them illegally. The interim government has already urged these individuals to legalise their stay, and an official order has been issued to this effect. However, a lack of comprehensive data on illegally residing foreign citizens calls for urgently addressing.
Quoting the official sources, some newspapers reported that around two hundred thousand (two lakhs) foreign citizens are staying in the country with valid visas or prior permission. Of them, around one-fourth or 45,000 are Indian citizens, followed by 13,000 United States (US) citizens, and 10,500 Chinese citizens. So, around two-thirds of the foreign citizens staying legally in Bangladesh are from these three countries. Of course, many US citizens are also citizens of Bangladesh as they hold dual citizenship.
Most foreign citizens come to Bangladesh for business, jobs, tourism, and education. Some stay for a short period, while others stay for longer periods, according to their needs. Alarmingly, some of them also stay after the validity of their visas expires. For instance, at least 7,500 Indian citizens are staying in the country even after the expiration of their travel permission.
What is more alarming is that the number of foreign citizens staying without any valid permission and the number is estimated at 0.40-0.50 million or more than double the legally staying foreigners. A large number of them are from India. The question is how such a big number of citizens of other countries are living in the country and why the law enforcing agencies have so long turned a blind eye to their illegal stay.
As foreign citizens enter the country through border control points, it is crucial to maintain accurate entry and exit records. The advancement of information and communication technology (ICT) has made it easier to create and maintain a comprehensive databank. However, the lack of proper planning and necessary measures is hindering the development of a comprehensive and interactive data repository of foreign citizens. Moreover, the past decade has seen many foreign citizens entering and staying in the country without proper documentation, a situation exacerbated by corruption and irregularities in relevant departments. The political support of the Hasina regime, especially for some Indian citizens to stay without proper approval, has also contributed to the increase in the number of illegal foreigners in the country.
Overall, the presence of a large number of illegal foreigners in the country highlights the poor state of governance. Many of these illegal foreigners pose a serious threat to the internal security of the country as they are mostly involved in various crimes in partnership with local criminals. Crimes such as human and drug trafficking to counterfeiting currency notes, gambling, illegal arms dealing and smuggling of gold, different foreign citizens are all committed by the foreign residents staying illegally, the police inform.
Therefore, a well-organised crackdown is imperative to identify, penalise, and deport these illegal foreign citizens. The government also needs to set up a substantial data repository to monitor the entry, presence, and exit of foreign citizens.
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