Rahman Jahangir DHAKA — A middle-ranking Libyan diplomat in Bangladesh is believed to have absconded with up to $13 million of visa payments made by Bangladeshis seeking jobs in Libya. Kamel Al-Mahjoub, who was chargé d'affaires at the embassy in Dhaka, is also thought to have operated a scam selling invalid visas. Up to 400 Bangladeshis have been turned away by Libyan immigration authorities in recent months, because of these fake documents. ATN Bangla, a private Bangladeshi television channel which broke the story, reported that a high-level Libyan team was due to arrive in the Bangladeshi capital to investigate the fraud. Mahjoub had been working unsupervised for over a year and Bangladesh authorities are blaming the scam on the lack of a Libyan ambassador. The previous mission head, Ahmed Atia Hamad Al-Iman, resigned from his post in protest against Gaddafi treatment of Libyan civilians, five days after the start of the revolution, and has not yet been replaced. A journalist for ATN Bangla, Keramot Ullah Biplob, told Libya Herald that Mahjoub had been charging $500 per visa application but that when the visas were issued, many carried the same visa number, rendering them invalid. Ten thousand visas had actually been issued and a further six thousand stamped passports are currently waiting, undelivered, at the Libyan embassy. It is not clear if these travel documents also all carry the same number. Biplob said, “Mahjoub does not appear to have left any money in Bangladeshi accounts but he apparently has a large sum in an international Dubai bank.” Mahjoub and his family reportedly left the country for Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia June 14. The allegations have been supported by Dr. Zafar Ahmed Khan, secretary of Bangladesh's Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry, who added that he hoped the entire scam would be exposed when the new Libyan ambassador arrived in Dhaka. There have been reports that local recruiting agencies may have been involved in the alleged racket. Biplob said of the thousands of his countrymen waiting to return to jobs or seeking work in Libya for the first time: “ They are very good, very friendly, all Muslim, all hard workers.” Around 30,000 Bangladeshis were working in Libya, but the majority fled the fighting early between February and April 2011. It was not clear last night how the Libyan immigration authorities were going to handle the fraud and whether Bangladeshis who had paid foreign currency for visas in good faith, would be issued proper travel and work documents. The Libyan Foreign Ministry spokesman, Saad Elshlmani, said last night that a team of investigators was about to leave for Dhaka to look into the allegations. — www.libyaherald.com
