5 arrested for providing fake birth certificates to Rohingyas

Mohammed Hossain, a Rohingya residing in a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, has at least 11 cases against his name. Desperate to leave the country, he contacted Abdur Rashid, a computer operator at Birol municipality office in Dinajpur, seeking help to obtain a birth registration certificate.

In exchange for Tk 30,000, Rashid provided Hossain with a fake certificate, mentioning him as a permanent resident of the municipality.

Hossain subsequently obtained a Bangladeshi passport and is believed to have gone abroad as a Bangladeshi citizen.

Detective branch of police said this after arresting five persons including Rashid for providing Rohingyas with fake birth registration certificates.

The four others are Sohel Chandra, a computer operator of Ranipukur union parishad office, Shahidul Islam Munna, Rasel Khan and Mostafizur Rahman.

Briefing reporters at his office, Harun or Rashid, chief of detective branch of DMP, said, "with the help of some unscrupulous Bangladeshis, the Rohingyas are getting fake birth registration certificates, National ID cards and even passports."

Though many are involved, he singled out computer operators working in union parishad and municipality offices.

These operators have access to IDs and passwords of their chairmen and secretaries, which they use to log in to the birth registration database and create fake certificates in exchange for money, he said.

They charge anything between Tk 5,000 and Tk 30,000 for each fake certificate.

After getting the birth certificate, many Rohingyas are getting NIDs. Thus, Rohingya people are illegally becoming citizens of Bangladesh, Harun added.

"Besides Rohingyas, criminals are also changing their identities by exploiting this loophole", he said.

Replying to a query whether officials from the Election Commission's NID wing, passport office, or police force are involved in the racket, Harun said an investigation will reveal that.

The arrestees were only involved in preparing the birth certificates, he said.

Detectives will investigate on who helped the Rohingya refugees get NIDs and passports, the DB chief said.

This group of arrestees has prepared around 3,000 fake birth registration certificates, Saifur Rahman Azad, an additional deputy commissioner (cyber and special crime south) of DB told The Daily Star.