Dhaka North City gives birth registration to 49 Rohingyas

Forty nine of the Rohingyas taking refuge in Bangladesh have been given birth registration from the health department of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC). The matter has been reported in a letter sent to DNCC executive officer from the office of the registrar general under the birth and death registration wing of the local government division on last Wednesday (5 June).

The letter sent to Dhaka North City Corporation asking for an explanation states that the special branch (SB) of Bangladesh police has reported about 49 Rohingya citizens having had their birth registration done from DNCC. These illegally registered birth certificates have been suspended from the birth and death registration information system (BDRIS).  

The letter also stated that the registrars and assistant registrars were in charge at the time of providing birth certificates to those Rohingyas would have appear at the registrar general’s office and give an explanation with five working days. Otherwise, legal action will be taken against them.

In this regard, DNCC secretary Mohammed Masud Alam Siddique sent a letter to the chief health officer of the organisation on Sunday asking for an explanation. With mention to the letter sent from the office of the registrar general it was requested there to confirm the matter of officers and employees who were in-charge back then giving explanation as directed.

When asked to know about this on Monday night, chief health officer of Dhaka north city Brigadier General Imrul Kayes told Prothom Alo over the phone that the birth registration numbers provided from the registrar general’s office has been reviewed. And there’s no existence of those numbers in the server. He also claimed those birth certificates to be illegitimate and unreliable.  

The special branch of police had sent a letter to the registrar general of birth and death registration on last 26 May. The letter stated that 102 persons have had Bangladeshi passports made by collecting birth registration certificates in illegal ways from different parts of the country. Based on intelligence information, a thorough investigation had been done about their passports.

The permanent addresses mentioned in the passports of those persons were not found to be true in the investigation. Those people have had the birth registration done from different locations through fraud taking help from brokers, dishonest officers and employees as well as local public representatives. Those persons are Myanmar citizens belonging to the Rohingya community.

Prothom Alo has found out 77 names on the list of 102 people, sent from police’s special branch to the office of the registrar general. Out of them, 42 Rohingyas have been given birth certificates from different regional office of Dhaka north city. Meanwhile, nine registrations have been done from DNCC zone-2, 17 from zone-3, 14 from zone-4, and one each from zone-5 and zone-9.

When asked, chief executive officer of Dhaka north city Mir Khairul Alam told Prothom Alo that the matter of Rohingyas being provided birth certificates is being investigated. If anyone’s involvement is found, they will be awarded with the sort of punishment there is, including departmental action.

Dhaka North City Corporation authorities had sacked an employee and suspended an officer in February last year for committing forgery of birth registration.

The sacked employee was assistant registrar of birth and death at the health department of Dhaka North City zone-5, Mafruza Sultana. She was on additional charge in zone-3 and zone-9. And the suspended official was assistant health officer (assistant surgeon) in Dhaka North City zone-3 and zone-9 on additional charge, Azizun Nessa. She was sustained to her own post again later.  

In April that year, the local government division had sent another letter to Dhaka North City Corporation authorities in connection to birth registration forgery. At that time, it was an incident of providing birth registration certificates to a citizen of South Korea and a Rohingya. However no action had been taken against the concerning officers and employees in charge.

*This report appeared in the print and online versions of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Nourin Ahmed Monisha.