Authorities allow entry of five undocumented Bangladeshis deported second-time from Sudan

A cat-and-mouse game with five youths, who had been stranded at Dhaka's Shahjalal International Airport for two days after returning from Sudan without any passport, have finally stopped as Bangladesh immigration authorities allowed them in to the country.

The authorities handed them over to their families on Thursday night following initial verification of their identities and an order from the top brass, Armed Police Battalion Captain Rashedul Islam told bdnews24.com on Friday.

The five are Md Frid Mia, 28, and Ashikur Rahman, 27, from Rangpur, Md Masud, 35, from Brahmanbarhia, Md Sabuj, 30, from Naogaon, and Alamgir Hossain, 30, from Mymensingh.

Misfortune struck some months after they had gone to Sudan to work as labourers - their employers seized their passports and forced them to work at low wages.

They later they managed a document issued by Sudanese police confirming their identities and returned to Dhaka on Oct 16. But the immigration authorities sent them back to Sudan, questioning their identities for having no valid document.

A cat and mouse game began as Sudanese authorities sent them back again to Dhaka on Wednesday.

Anxieties among their families waiting outside the airport mounted when the authorities here planned to send them back again to collect proper document from the Bangladesh embassy in Egypt as there is no embassy in Sudan now.

Immigration Police on Thursday told bdnews24.com that the five had to return to Sudan as the authorities could not do anything breaching rules.

The families demanded they be handed over to the police to confirm their identities.

The authorities changed their mind after bdnews24.com ran a report on the Bangladeshis stranded at the airport.

'Lost hope'

Md Anwar, father of one of the deportees waiting outside the airport on Thursday for his son Sabuj, said he had once thought he would never be able to get him back home.

"We are poor people. I lost hope when police denied my son entry to the country. I would not be able to manage the money to bring him back if he had been sent back to Sudan. I felt helpless," he said.

Sabuj, now 30 years of age, went to Sudan in 2009 through an agent and sent money back for a few months. The amount of the money he was sending shrunk gradually and later stopped when his employer forced him to work at low wage by seizing his passport and other necessary document.

Later he went to a Bangladeshi agent who managed the Sudanese police verification for him in exchange for Tk 50,000.

The story is the same for the four others.

"We may be poor, but we are Bangladeshis. We were asked at the airport whether we are Bangladeshis. They also suspected that we were militants. I felt very bad. I wish no-one gets caught in such a situation," Sabuj said.

The youth said now he is planning to do something in the country instead of going abroad.

'Uncertain future'

Azizul Islam started for Rangpur after his brother came out of the airport late on Thursday night.

The family is now in another anxiety over repaying the Tk 400,000 loan taken to send Ashik abroad. The family is paying Tk 10,000 interest per month now.

"We are not sending him abroad again. We'll try to manage a garment factory job for him in Dhaka," Azizul said.

Masud's story is similar to that of Ashik. Moreover, his family had to spend Tk 150,000 to bring him back.