Immigration Intelligence: Practices
in Bangladesh
Ministry of Home Affairs with its Immigration
Wing, centrally coordinates
 The Special Branch (SB) of Police is the
functional unit in conducting the immigration
services of Bangladesh.
 No separate unit for immigration intelligence
 The Special Branch (SB) is one of the prime
intelligence agencies of Bangladesh headed by
an Additional Inspector General (Addl. IGP)
who comes from Bangladesh Police.
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The SB has around 64 district based offices,
called District Special Branch (DSB) and also
has offices in many Upazilla/Thana areas.
This extensive establishment is a strength to
immigration intelligence and to combat
smuggling, trafficking and related
transnational crimes in Bangladesh.
Immigration intelligence provides the basis
to the Immigration Wing of SB with an
effective means in preventing and detecting
immigration related offences.
Sources of information includes staffs of
Special Branch and other intelligence
agencies i.e. National Security Intelligence
(NSI), Detective Branch (DB), as well as
members of public.
 Internal sharing of information among the
intelligence agencies, i.e. National Security
Intelligence (NSI), Detective Branch (DB) of
police – is also a common practice.
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International Air Ports
Land Posts
Sea Posts
All the international air ports and sea
port have already been digitalized, and
most of land posts have also been
digitalized .
Documents analysis center – in major
ports.
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Screening in three stages:
Entry
Immigration
Boarding
The immigration intelligence needs a
centrally digitalized information
bank.
 A centrally connected data base is at
the final stage to facilitate the
standard
practices
related
to
immigration.
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Immigration Intelligence of Bangladesh aims
to screening individuals both incoming and
outgoing.
Cracking down international and national
crimes
Security Review: applicants who may pose a
national security risk due to their involvement
in terrorism and other crimes are screened
Organized Crime: Applicants who may have
been involved in organized crime or other
serious criminal activities are screened
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Immigration intelligence of Bangladesh is
also involved in screening of both the
outgoing and incoming individuals as
Bangladesh’s commitment to
international justice in coordination with
INTERPOL.
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Bangladesh Passport Rules, 1974
The Passport Act, 1920
The Emigration Ordinance, 1982
The Foreigners Act, 1946
The Emigration Rules 2002
Recruiting Agent’s Conduct and License
Rules 2002
Women and Children Repression Prevention
Act, 2000 (Act no. 8 of 2000)
A comprehensive rules to address the issue of
immigration and related offences is in
progress.
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Bangladesh shares its border with India and Myanmar.
Bangladesh does not have any formal Institutional
arrangement with its neighbours – India and Myanmar
to share immigration related information. However, the
Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) and Border Security
Force (BSF) of India has informal arrangement of
sharing intelligence on case by case basis.
Recently, Bangladesh and India are working on devising
a Coordinated Border Management Plan (CBMP).
Vulnerable patches are determined to combat illegal
trafficking in persons and related crimes.
Coordinated patrolling at the vulnerable patches could
also be an effective measures in this regard.
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Consultation, Coordination and cooperation among the
intelligence agencies is crucial in devising a functional
immigration everywhere.
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Theoretically bilateral/ multilateral initiatives of intelligence
sharing could be an effective approach.
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Developing practical measures, to prevent, intercept and
disrupt people smuggling & trafficking and other
transnational crime in the Asia Pacific region through a
proactive Immigration Intelligence network, particularly in
real time – is challenging.
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Forum like Bali process could be an ideal platform to think
about these challenges involved in the national, bilateral, and
multilateral levels in sharing of intelligence.
Thank You