I M M I G R ATIO N L AW, L EG AL STAT US, AND D O C U MENTATI O N Foreigners Act, 1946 S UMMARY Provides for the regulation of the entry to, presence in, and departure from Bangladesh by foreign nationals. This Act should be read in conjunction with the Prisons Act, 1894 and the Bengal Jail Code, 1864. AP PL ICAB IL IT Y TO RO H I NGYA This Act applies to any foreign national in Bangladesh (defined as “a person who is not a citizen of Bangladesh”). Any Rohingya person in Bangladesh, who is not a national of Bangladesh, is covered by this Act. The Act does not specifically address the issue of statelessness or refugee status. P ROTECTIO N N OT ES Any violation of the Foreigners Act is a criminal offence per Section 14. Section 3 of this Act provides the Government with broad authority to make orders with respect to foreigners in Bangladesh, as well as with regards to their entry to (Section 3.2.a) and exit from (Section 3.2.b) Bangladesh. This includes the authority to issue orders requiring foreigners (or a class of foreigners) to reside in a particular place (Section 3.2.i) and to impose restrictions on movement (Section 3.2.ii). The Government has broad discretion in Section 10 to exempt any individual foreigner or any class or description of foreigner from any provision of the Act. The analysis presented here is based on the understanding that the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) has exercised its powers under Section 10 to permit entry to and presence in Bangladesh of the Rohingya population that arrived beginning in August 2017. This understanding is based on various actions and statements by the Government that illustrate the exercise of this discretion. This includes, for example, the April 2018 Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Bangladesh and UNHCR13 and statements by the Secretary of the Bangladesh Ministry of Home Affairs,14 which acknowledge the Government’s discretionary grant of entry to Rohingya. The application of this exemption, which may or may not be limited to Rohingyas inside the camps and/or arriving during a specific time period, has far-reaching implications, as is demonstrated in the following entries in this document. Because this exemption is understood to have been applied, the following protections within this Act should be available to Rohingya: • No criminal case should be filed against any Rohingya person for unlawful entry into Bangladesh under Section 3.2.a of this Act, particularly in instances where Rohingya persons are charged with or prosecuted for unrelated offences under other criminal laws.15 Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) v. Bangladesh (High Court judgment, dated 31 May 2017) S UMMARY A Rohingya man was convicted in 2011 for unlawful entry into Bangladesh under Section 3 of the Foreigners Act 1946, four years after his arrest on 29 May 2007. The Trial Magistrate ordered that the time served by the convict in prison following his arrest be deducted from his sentence of five years, in accordance with Section 35.a of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1898, meaning he should have been released in 2012. 13 BE YOND REFU GE: ADVANCING LEG AL PROTECTIONS FOR ROHINGYA C OMMUNITIES IN BANGL ADESH