Biometric screening of Rohingya refugees to be done in three months

The Department of Immigration and Passports hopes to complete collecting biometric details of Rohingya refugees within the next three months.

Its Director General Major General Masud Rezwan spoke to journalists in Cox’s Bazar on Thursday about the task.

The DG went there to supervise the registration process at booths in Kutupalong and Nayaparha.

As per government records, there are 14 camps in the southeastern district currently sheltering 424,000 Rohingyas.

All of them have fled the Rakhine State after a fresh army crackdown started there on Aug 25.

The booths started collecting data of the refugees on Sept 11, and so far, more than 8,000 refugees have been registered.

“One more registration booth will be set up at Balukhali hill in Ukhia Upazila within the next week. We are increasing manpower in the booths,” Rezwan said.

He added 30 new laptops have been brought at the booths.

“The language difference with them (Rohingyas) hinders the process a bit but we hope to wrap it up within the next three months.”

However, at a media briefing on Thursday, Disaster Management Secretary Shah Kamal said it will take another two months to finish the biometric screening of Rohingya refugees.

Abu Nesar Md Badruddoza, senior system analyst of the passports department, said Kutupalong booth had been operating with six computers while Nayaparha had four.

With Thursday’s additions, the Kutupalong booth now has 24 and the Nayaparha booth in Teknaf has 16 computers, he said.