Bangladesh needs to step up efforts to curb fraudulent visa applications, as officials and stakeholders warn that unethical brokers operating both at home and from Western capitals continue to exploit social media, with prosecutions of offenders remaining rare.
The concerns were raised at a meeting in Dhaka on Wednesday reviewing progress in addressing the drivers of visa fraud, where participants said loosely regulated intermediaries, online misinformation and weak cross-border enforcement are undermining recent policy measures despite growing scrutiny from destination countries.
Envoys from Italy, Germany, UK and the Netherlands commended Bangladesh’s landmark ordinance "Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking and Smuggling of Migrants Ordinance" which unambiguously criminalises the smuggling of migrants, including those that facilitate and assist, through activities such as document fraud.
This was expressed at the meeting convened by Chief Adviser’s Special Envoy Lutfey Siddiqi at his office.
The heads of Special Branch and Criminal Investigation Department (CID) were present as well as representatives from National Security Intelligence (NSI), the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The following points were raised at the meeting:
1. It is perceived that until recently, Bangladesh authorities were not serious about curbing the prevalence of fraudulent documents used in visa applications. This in turn has eroded trust and contaminated the approval process for applications from Bangladesh.
2. Specific examples include one embassy that received over 600 applications in the last few months with job offer letters that were fake.
Another received 300 tourist visa applications all from the same part of Bangladesh, and all accompanied by fake statements from the same bank.
In another instance, a Facebook page had already collected several hundreds of thousands of Taka in fees from 70 victims before they were disrupted.
In all three cases, Law Enforcement is now pursuing prosecution.
In addition, over 40 people on average have been offloaded every day by immigration police last year.
3. Another phenomenon is the use/abuse of airports that grant visa-on-arrival to Bangladeshis as transit points for moving illegally to third countries.
4. One country reported that last year, they received over 6,000 asylum applications from Bangladeshis who had originally entered on student or work visas.
5. Another country reported that the general breakdown of trust in our documents has significantly lengthened their visa processing time; another reported a temporary suspension of all applications until an investigator from their headquarters (currently visiting Bangladesh) completes her work.
6. On a positive note, it was mentioned that United Commercial Bank (UCB) now provides a QR code on their bank statements which make them easier to verify. This should be rolled out more widely.
7. Intelligence sharing agreements have also been put in place recently or are in the process of being established so that transnational crime can be tackled in a coordinated manner between the sending and host countries.
8. Technical assistance and systems such as the EU’s Returnee Case Management System (RCMS) are also being put to good use. However, it was observed that officers who obtain training from foreign partners on immigration issues can soon get transferred out to other parts of the police.
9. In recent months, the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) have fully automated most of their processes and have linked their system to that of immigration police so that both exits and re-entry of BMET card-holders can now be monitored for the first time.
10. However, it was observed that while primary agents are regulated via a registration process, sub-agents who operate downstream remain unauthorised and unregulated. There needs to be proactive awareness campaigns about potential abuses by brokers.
11. Bangladesh is now a party to The Hague Apostille Convention. This means that Bangladesh is treaty-bound to ensure that notarised documents are genuine and credible. It is vital that apostilles issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are irreproachably genuine both in terms of their source and content.
All parties at the meeting sought the high-level focus and commitment of the interim government to transparently tackle this issue.
They also commended the unprecedented cooperation that they are receiving from Bangladesh.