Visa Refusal Ratio Has Recently Jumped Up for Bangladeshis

A broad number of talented Bangladeshi students were awarded scholarships from universities located in the United States of America and the European Union (EU) but these students could not fly to their desired academic destinations for reasons of visa refusal from the foreign countries concerned. Such things are happening far more frequently than ever before during last couple of years.

Lots of Bangladeshis with visa stamps in their passports from different foreign embassies are not being able to secure US visa and visa from EU countries recently. Securing visa has become very much complicated and visa refusal ratio has mounted unprecedentedly for Bangladeshi visa applicants who received work permits from foreign countries. This is harmful for Bangladesh's economy because a huge portion of the country's foreign currencies is earned from expatriate Bangladeshis who work in overseas locations. Visa applications are being declined for Bangladeshi tourists and businessmen as well.

Some Asian countries like Vietnam and Indonesia once upon a time used to issue visas to Bangladeshi people easily but at present these countries have also imposed a great deal of restrictions on their visa approval procedure for Bangladeshi nationals reportedly. Several tour operations and travel agencies based in Dhaka have informed these alarming things to journalists though no country has announced any official visa ban on Bangladeshi passports.

Foreign affairs experts have said that most of the Bangladeshi travelers misuse visas issued by foreign embassies and these Bangladeshis violate visa rules quite often which has spoiled foreign diplomatic missions' confidence on Bangladeshi visa applicants. Frequent visa rejection is also adding dishonour to Bangladesh's image. Diplomatic sources have informed that Bangladeshi political parties expose their antagonism towards each other in foreign countries by getting involved in violent clashes in broad daylight. This phenomenon has also heavily affected the visa application process for Bangladeshis when it comes to seeking visa for visiting prosperous countries. 

 Latest ranking of different countries' passports by some international organizations show that the acceptability of Bangladeshi passports has drastically gone down. As a result foreign embassies can't trust Bangladeshi visa seekers. The recent political turmoil in Bangladesh particularly since August 2024 has triggered a trepidation in the international arena that Bangladeshi travelers are most likely to stay illegally in western countries. This situation has sparked concern among foreign diplomatic missions and has made them suspicious about Bangladeshi visa applicants reportedly.

Bangladesh government's Ministry of Foreign Affairs should take immediate steps to deal with these issues seriously. Bangladeshi diplomats based in the United States and in the EU countries have a big role to play to restore the dignity of Bangladeshi passports.

Md. Rafeuzzaman, President of Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh (TOAB) has said that India, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam have made their visa rules too tough for Bangladeshis compared to the past years. Md. Rafeuzzaman stated that getting visa from foreign diplomatic missions belonging to Sri Lanka, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia have reduced the ratio of visa approval for Bangladeshi people.

India stopped tourist visas for Bangladeshis since former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted from power on 5 August 2024. Many other countries in the west have almost halted issuing visas to Bangladeshis during last one year without delivering any clarification.

Travel agent Mohiuddin Selim said that the USA, Australia and Canada have tightened visa approval for Bangladeshi people for last one year without showing any reasons behind making visa regulations harder for Bangladeshi nationals.
 
Bangladeshi people's habits of moving away to another country by means of the visa received from one country have drawn attention from the immigration authorities of European countries, USA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand etcetera. These countries have imposed stringent regulations on their visa policy to stop illegal immigration from countries like Bangladesh. Former ambassador M. Humayun Kabir said that countries like Thailand and Vietnam have also become highly conservative about issuing visa to Bangladeshis for similar reasons.
 
Allegations show that some unscrupulous travel agencies belonging to Bangladesh send tourists to foreign countries and engage these travelers with jobs which is unlawful. UK-based immigration analysis firm Henley and Partners has indexed that Bangladeshi passports currently hold the seventh place among the weakest passports in the world. The world's 38 countries offer visa-free entry to Bangladeshi travelers. These foreign countries are located in Africa and in the Caribbean Islands. Most Bangladeshis have very little or no interest to visit or work in these countries. Moreover, the political vulnerability prevailing in Bangladesh since August 2024 persuades a lot of Bangladeshi citizens to seek political asylum in western countries when their visa applications are granted. Political asylum policy in the United Kingdom and the EU countries are now much different from previous times. For this reason these countries don't feel encouraged to exercise liberal views when they scrutinize visa applications from Bangladeshi nationals.
 

>>BBC