Chittagong airport police stops 22 ‘Rohingyas’ from flying

Immigration police have detained 22 persons at Shah Amanat International Airport in Chittagong on suspicion of being Rohingyas travelling with forged documents.

Chittagong Bureaubdnews24.com
Published : 18 Jan 2017, 08:07 AM
Updated : 18 Jan 2017, 08:07 AM

On Wednesday, at 9am, the group was caught while completing their immigration procedure before taking an Air Arabia flight to Saudi Arabia, Airport Manager Wing Commander Riazul Kabir said.

All of them had Bangladeshi passports with Umrah visas, he told bdnews24.com.

“We will confirm their identity after interrogation,” he added.

According to government estimates, Bangladesh is now home to 333,000 Rohingyas – 33,000 in two registered camps in Cox’s Bazar, and the rest scattered outside the camps.

After an army crackdown began in Myanmar’s Rakhina state last October, some 65,000 Rohingya Muslims have crossed the border into Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh government claims that many of these Rohingyas are tarnishing Bangladesh’s global image by flying abroad with illegal passports and then engaging in criminal activity.