Five Bangladeshis deported from Sudan stranded at Dhaka airport, to be sent back again

Sudanese police have sent five Bangladeshis back but with their passports seized by their employers in Sudan, the immigration authorities in Dhaka are not allowing them entry.

Immigration Police at Dhaka's Shahjalal International Airport said Sudan deported them once earlier this month but they were sent back for having no valid travel documents.

The immigration authorities are planning to send them back to Sudan again.

Their relatives were waiting outside the airport on Thursday, a day after their arrival. But the poor families appeared to have no way out of the situation.

The five have been identified as Md Farid Mia, 28, and Ashikur Rahman, 27, from Rangpur, Md Masud, 35, from Brahmanbarhia, Md Sabuj, 30, from Naogaon, and Alamgir Hossain from Mymensingh, 30.

Immigration Police Assistant Commissioner Abdullah Al Mamun told bdnews24.com they have neither passport nor out-pass to enter Bangladesh.

"We are not sure whether they are Bangladeshi. They have a document issued by Sudanese police which in Arabic says they are Bangladeshi," he said.

But the Bangladesh embassy, not Sudanese police, is the authority to identify them, the immigration police officer pointed out.

"They had been deported from Sudan like this earlier but we sent them back. Now we will send them back again considering national security," he added.

Mamun also said the five would have to get confirmation about their identity from the Bangladesh embassy in Egypt, as Bangladesh has no embassy in Sudan.

"Then they will be able to return and enter Bangladesh with out-pass," he said.

A security official at the airport, on condition of anonymity, said, "Everyone knows that they are Bangladeshi. They won't have to spend their days in custody of Sudanese police if they are handed over to their families."

Asked whether the families waiting outside the airport were contacted, Mamun said, "We cannot do anything going beyond the rules."