49 Bangladeshis deported from the US

Forty-nine undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh were deported from the United States on Wednesday, having left their home nation in a bid to get the American dream without a full understanding of the realities involved to reach and stay in the country. The Bangladeshis risked their lives traveling through several other countries, believing that the United States offered a better option for them and their families.

On their long journey, the Bangladeshi immigrants used air, land and water routes to get to the United States, traveling through the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Columbia, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Panama, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico before finally separately entering the United States in California.

Not long after arrival they were apprehended by immigration police and ended up in prison, where they served between one to two years in jail before being deported on Wednesday. A special US airline flight took the Bangladeshis to Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at around 3 am, according to one of the deportees, 40-year-old Kamal Uddin. Kamal, who originates from Noakhali, says that all the deported attempted to gain political asylum in the United States and were interrogated several times by American police. The Bangladesh embassy in Washington DC was contacted.

Hearings were held in US courts to settle the issues and the deportees’ appeals were finally rejected last year, with orders for their deportation given. Ann B McConnell, the Dhaka US embassy public affairs officer, says that the immigrants’ cases were dealt with appropriately under American law.