31 Africans held in city

Detectives detain the 31 foreign nationals including 12 Nigerians from different parts of Dhaka. Photo: Rashed Suman

Detectives have detained 31 foreign nationals of 10 African countries from different parts of Dhaka last night.

The foreign nationals were arrested in separate drives in the capital's, Banashree, Gulshan and Uttara, on charge of undocumented immigrant living in the city, Krisna Pado Roy, deputy commissioner of Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (South) (DMP) said.

Addressing a press conference at the DMP office, Roy said they were picked up from raids at 147 separate residences in those areas.

The detained illegal migrants. Photo: Palash KHan

Among the captured,  12  people are Nigerians,  Uganda 5, Cameroon 4, Gambia 3, Ivory Coast 2, one each from Senegal , Kenya, Togo, Mali and Mozambique.

Around one lakh foreigners, mostly from African and South East Asian nations, are living in the country illegally for years. Of them, some African and Thai nationals are involved in crimes, according to sources in intelligence agencies.

Earlier, Law enforcers said they are going to launch a crackdown on foreigners staying illegally in Bangladesh following reports of involvement of some of them in criminal activities.

The move comes about two weeks after O-level student Zubair Ahmed was murdered in capital’s Uttara, allegedly by an Algerian national.