The government is imposing travel bans against people suspected of laundering money and smuggling, as part of its firm stance to prevent money laundering, boost remittances through legal channels, curb hundi, and mitigate the USD crisis.
As part of this process, for the first time, the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport customs authority on Wednesday handed over photocopies of passports and photographs of 25 people to the Immigration Police.
The customs authority has also sent a letter to the immigration police asking for a list of suspects with frequent travel history in the last one year.
Airport Customs has formed four surveillance teams consisting of 12 members to prevent money laundering and gold smuggling. This is the first anti-money laundering unit of customs authorities at the airports.
Dhaka Customs House Joint Commissioner Minhaj Uddin said, “An USD crisis is going on across the globe. So, money laundering is taking place in a larger scale. We are working to prevent such crimes.
“This initiative will stop illegal activities such as smuggling through the airport.”
Insiders say the customs authorities are preparing a list of travellers who travelled abroad more than three times a month. Their passport, name and social status will be scrutinised. These people travel abroad without any valid reasons and make USD purchases from the open market.
In many cases, Bangladeshi expat workers in the Middle East send money to their families through Hundi agents.
The agents collect foreign currency by paying cash in the country. With that foreign currency, the Hundi agents buy various goods including gold and drugs and smuggled them into the country.
A large part of the gold is smuggled to neighboring countries.
Money laundering is creating a shortage of foreign currency including USD in the country.
Therefore, the government has taken a strict stance against money laundering, hundi and gold smuggling. But in this case, the customs department will also keep an eye so that no one gets harassed.
After nabbing suspects at the airport, they will be sent to customs officials when they go through immigration. They can go abroad only if they give a satisfactory answer. Anyone bringing gold while returning home will have to tell authorities about the source of money.
Officials say that a huge amount of gold is brought into the country through carriers. They carry this gold in exchange for a certain amount of money. They have no investment. Big hundi gangs buy this gold and send those to the country through them.
According to custom sources, four surveillance teams comprising 12 assistant revenue officers have been formed to prevent smuggling and money laundering, intelligence gathering and rummaging activities in the protection of government revenue.
Officers of the unit headed by a joint commissioner will be on duty in four shifts.
On October 15, an order of the Dhaka Customs House authority said that this specialized unit will be able to conduct search operations at the time of departure, including prevention of smuggling and currency smuggling.
