Saudi pressures Bangladesh to issue passports to Rohingya

Saudi Arabia has reportedly threatened to return Bangladeshi workers from the kingdom if the country does not issue passports to some 54,000 Rohingya Muslims who have been living in the kingdom for decades.

Faced with systematic persecution in Myanmar and in more recent years what has been described by Human Rights Watch as “ethnic cleansing”, tens of thousands of the Rohingya found refuge in Saudi Arabia almost 40 years ago.

However, last month Bangladeshi Foreign Minister, AK Abdul Momen revealed that Riyadh had told Dhaka it “would be helpful” if the refugees were given Bangladeshi passports as the kingdom “doesn’t keep stateless people”.

“Many of the refugees have never come to Bangladesh and have no idea about the country. They know Saudi culture and speak the Arabic language,” Momen told a press conference.

Myanmar rejects the Rohingya community’s claims that they are indigenous to the Rakhine state and thus does not recognize them as citizens.

Saudi Arabia has reportedly threatened to return Bangladeshi workers from the kingdom if the country does not issue passports to some 54,000 Rohingya Muslims who have been living in the kingdom for decades.

Faced with systematic persecution in Myanmar and in more recent years what has been described by Human Rights Watch as “ethnic cleansing”, tens of thousands of the Rohingya found refuge in Saudi Arabia almost 40 years ago.

However, last month Bangladeshi Foreign Minister, AK Abdul Momen revealed that Riyadh had told Dhaka it “would be helpful” if the refugees were given Bangladeshi passports as the kingdom “doesn’t keep stateless people”.

“Many of the refugees have never come to Bangladesh and have no idea about the country. They know Saudi culture and speak the Arabic language,” Momen told a press conference.

Myanmar rejects the Rohingya community’s claims that they are indigenous to the Rakhine state and thus does not recognize them as citizens.