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Although Saudi Arabia has lobbied the Rohingya to issue passports, they will not be issued if they do not show proof that they had passports before. Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen made the remarks in response to a question from journalists on Thursday.
Abdul Momen said: “40 years ago, in 1986, the Rohingya were being persecuted. Then, the then king of Saudi Arabia announced that he would give shelter to the Rohingya. Later in the 1980s and 1990s, many Rohingya went to Saudi Arabia. They know the Saudi culture and speak Arabic. They don’t know about Bangladesh. They don’t have a passport, they’re there. ‘
“Saudi Arabia has told us that it does not keep stateless people in its country,” he said. Many Rohingya are coming to their country. Then issue Rohingya passports. We said, if you’ve ever had a Bangladeshi passport before or can show any evidence that you were in Bangladesh one day, then I’ll give you a passport. He said: ‘There are 472 Rohingya who call themselves Bangladeshi. Saudi Arabia says take them away. They are now in jail for various crimes. We checked and saw that 60-70 people thought they had Bangladeshi passports. We don’t know about the rest. I will bring back those who had Bangladeshi passports with their documents. ‘
