BANGLADESH INFORMATION ON HOST GOVERNMENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 DHAKA 001724 SIPDIS SIPDIS S/CT FOR KEN MCKUNE, NCTC, AND DHS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/01/2007 TAGS: ASEC BG CVIS KVPR PGOV PINR PREL PTER SUBJECT: BANGLADESH INFORMATION ON HOST GOVERNMENT PRACTICES - INFORMATION COLLECTION, SCREENING AND SHARING REF: STATE 13921 Classified By: CDA a.i. Geeta Pasi for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (U) This is Mission Dhaka's response to the action cable on &host government practices -- information collection, screening and sharing8 (reftel). Answers to questions are in CAPITAL LETTERS. ¶2. (C) A. Watch listing: a. If host government maintains a "watch list," how many records does the watch list contain, and how many are terrorist-related? NOT KNOWN. b. Which ministry or office maintains the watch list? BANGLADESH DOES NOT MAINTAIN A FORMAL WATCH LIST, BUT NUMEROUS AGENCIES CONTRIBUTE TO AN UNOFFICIAL LIST; IT IS UNCLEAR WHO HAS FORMAL OVERSIGHT FOR THAT LIST. ADDITIONALLY, THE RAPID ACTION BATTALION, THE COUNTRY,S PREMIER COUNTERTERRORISM FORCE, UNDER THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS MAINTAINS ITS OWN WATCH LIST OF CRIMINALS/TERRORISTS. ¶B. Traveler Information Collection: a. What are the country's policies (legislation, mandates, etc.) on collecting information from travelers arriving in the country? POLICIES ARE BASED ON THE PASSPORT AND IMMIGRATION ACT OF BANGLADESH. b. Are there different policies for air, sea, and land entry and for domestic flights? SAME POLICIES, BUT IN PRACTICE TRAVELER INFORMATION COLLECTION IS SPOTTY AT POROUS LAND BORDERS. c. Who collects traveler information? BANGLADESH'S IMMIGRATION POLICE. d. What are the policies of the collecting agency to share that information with foreign governments? IT WILL SHARE INFORMATION IF FORMALLY REQUESTED TO DO SO. e. Does the host government collect Passenger Name Record (PNR) data on incoming commercial flights or vessels? YES. Is this data used for intelligence or law enforcement purposes to screen travelers? YES. Does host government have any existing treaties to share PNR data? NO. f. If applicable, have advance passenger information systems (APIS),interactive advanced passenger information systems (IAPIS),or electronic travel authority systems been effective at detecting other national security threats, such as wanted criminals? N/A. ¶C. Border Control and Screening: a. Does the host government employ software to screen travelers of security interest? IT USES FORTRAC SOFTWARE TO MAINTAIN ITS OWN ELECTRONIC DATA BASE AT THE THREE MAJOR AIRPORTS IN DHAKA, CHITTAGONG AND SYLHET. b. Are all travelers tracked electronically, or only non-host-country nationals? YES, ALL ARE TRACKED. What is the frequency of travelers being "waived through" because they hold up what appears to be an appropriate document, but whose information is not actually recorded electronically? THE EXACT NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO ARE WAIVED THROUGH IS UNKNOWN. TYPICALLY, SENIOR DIPLOMATS DON,T STAND BEFORE IMMIGRATION OFFICERS BUT INSTEAD HAVE IMMIGRATION FORMALITIES HANDLED BY AN EXPEDITOR; AT A MINIMUM, THIS MEANS THERE IS NO CHECKING THE VIP WITH A PASSPORT PHOTO. What is the estimated percentage of non-recorded crossings, entries and exits? UNKNOWN, BUT THERE ARE MANY NON-RECORDED CROSSINGS ACROSS THE POROUS LAND BORDER. c. Do host government border control officials have the authority to use other criminal data when making decisions on who can enter the country? YES, THEY CAN USE CRIMINAL DATA TO STOP PEOPLE FROM ENTERING OR DEPARTING THE COUNTRY. If so, please describe this authority (legislation, mandates, etc). THE NATIONAL IMMIGRATION AND BORDER CONTROL ACTS. d. What are the host government's policies on questioning detaining and denying entry to individuals presenting themselves at a point of entry into the country? FOREIGN NATIONALS ARE DEPORTED IMMEDIATELY AFTER ENTRY IS DENIED. IN SOME CASES, THEY ARE SUBJECTED TO SECONDARY QUESTIONING. Which agency would question, detain, or deny entry? BANGLADESH IMMIGRATION POLICE. e. How well does information sharing function within the host government, e.g., if there is a determination that someone with a valid host-government visa is later identified with terrorism, how is this communicated and resolved internally? INFORMATION SHARING OCCURS BUT PRIMARILY BASED ON PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS AS OPPOSED TO ESTABLISHED INTERNAL MECHANISMS. ¶D. Biometric Collection: a. Are biometric systems integrated for all active POEs? NO DHAKA 00001724 002 OF 003 What are the systems and models used? N/A. b. Are all passengers screened for the biometric or does the host government target a specific population for collection (i.e. host country nationals)? NO. Do the biometric collection systems look for a one-to-one comparison (ensure the biometric presented matches the one stored on the e-Passport) or one-to-many comparison (checking the biometric presented against a database of known biometrics)? N/A. c. If biometric systems are in place, does the host government know of any countermeasures that have been used or attempted to defeat biometric checkpoints? HOST GOVERNMENT DOES NOT COLLECT FINGERPRINTS. d. What are the host government's policies on collecting the fingerprints of travelers coming into the country? NO SYSTEM MAINTAINED. e. Which agency is responsible for the host government's fingerprint system? N/A. f. Are the fingerprint programs in place NIST, INT-I, EFTS, UK1 or RTID compliant? N/A. g. Are the fingerprints collected as flats or rolled? Which agency collects the fingerprints? N/A. ¶E. Passports: a. If the host government issues a machine-readable passport containing biometric information, does the host government share the public key required to read the biometric information with any other governments? If so, which governments? THE HOST GOVERNMENT DOES NOT ISSUE MACHINE-READABLE PASSPORTS. b. Does the host government issue replacement passports for full or limited validity (e.g. the time remaining on the original passports, fixed validity for a replacement, etc.)? FULL VALIDITY (FIVE YEARS). c. Does the host government have special regulations/procedures for dealing with "habitual" losers of passports or bearers who have reported their passports stolen multiple times? NO. APPLICATIONS FOR REPLACEMENT PASSPORTS ARE ACCEPTED AS LONG AS THEY ARE SUPPORTED BY A POLICE REPORT d. Are replacement passports of the same or different appearance and page length as regular passports (do they have something along the lines of our emergency partial duration passports)? SAME APPEARANCE. e. Do emergency replacement passports contain the same or fewer biometric fields as regular-issue passports? N/A. f. Where applicable, has Post noticed any increase in the number of replacement or "clean" (i.e. no evidence of prior travel) passports used to apply for U.S. visas? WE HAVE NOT NOTICED ANY INCREASE. MOST APPLICANTS REALIZE COMING IN WITH A &CLEAN8 PASSPORT DOES NOT BOOST THEIR CHANCES TO GET A VISA. g. Are replacement passports assigned a characteristic number series or otherwise identified? NO, THEY ARE GIVEN THE NEXT AVAILABLE NUMBER. PASSPORTS HAVE SEVEN-DIGIT NUMBERS PRECEDED BY A LETTER. LAST YEAR THE PASSPORTS WORKED THEIR WAY THROUGH THE ALPHABET AND MOVED BACK TO THE LETTER &A8 WITHOUT CHANGING THE NUMBER OF DIGITS, WHICH MEANS DUPLICATE PASSPORT NUMBERS. ¶F. Fraud Detection a. How robust is fraud detection and how actively are instances of fraud involving documents followed up? THERE IS VIRTUALLY NO FRAUD DETECTION BY THE HOST GOVERNMENT, IN LARGE PART BECAUSE FRAUD IS NOT NECESSARY TO SECURE A LEGITIMATE DOCUMENT. FOR EXAMPLE, PASSPORTS ARE ISSUED BASED ON A BIRTH CERTIFICATE. MOST BANGLADESHIS DON,T EVEN REGISTER A BIRTH UNTIL THEY NEED A PASSPORT, SO IT IS COMMON FOR PASSPORTS TO BE ISSUED BASED ON A RECENTLY ISSUED BIRTH CERTIFICATE. THIS MEANS A BANGLADESHI CAN GET MULTIPLE PASSPORTS BASED ON MULTIPLE BIRTH CERTIFICATES AND NOT BE CAUGHT BECAUSE THE PASSPORT WILL NOT CARRY BIOMETRIC FINGERPRINTS AND THE HOST GOVERNMENT DOES NOT USE PHOTO RECOGNITION. b. How are potentially fraudulently issued documents taken out of circulation, or made harder to use? VIRTUALLY ALL DOCUMENTS ARE LEGITIMATELY ISSUED. IF A HOST GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL EVER SUSPECTED THAT A LEGITIMATELY ISSUED DOCUMENT HAD BEEN ILLEGALLY OBTAINED THEY WOULD TAKE IT OUT OF CIRCULATION. HOWEVER, THE PERSON DISPOSSESSED OF THAT DOCUMENT WOULD BE ABLE TO OBTAIN ANOTHER ONE, LEGITIMATELY ISSUED, ALMOST IMMEDIATELY. ¶G. Privacy and Data Security a. What are the country's policies on records related to the questioning, detention or removal of individuals encountered at points of entry into the country? How are those records stored and for how long? THE SPECIAL BRANCH OF POLICE AND NATIONAL SECURITY INTELLIGENCE (NSI) MAINTAIN THE RECORDS FOR DHAKA 00001724 003 OF 003 AN INDEFINITE PERIOD OF TIME. INFORMATION ON CERTAIN COUNTERTERRORISM SUBJECTS ALSO ARE SHARED WITH MILITARY INTELLIGENCE AND THE RAPID ACTION BATTALION, THE COUNTRY,S LEAD COUNTERTERRORISM FORCE. b. What are the country's restrictions on the collection or use of sensitive data? INDIVIDUAL DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES HAVE THEIR OWN POLICIES REGARDING ACCESS. c. What are the requirements to provide notice to the public on the implementation of new databases of records? GOVERNMENT POLICY HAS BEEN TO ISSUE CIRCULARS PROVIDING ADVANCE NOTICE OF NEW DATABASES OF RECORDS; THE AMOUNT OF ADVANCE NOTICE APPEARS TO VARY. d. Are there any laws relating to security features for government computer systems that hold personally identifying information? NO. e. What are the rules on an individual's ability to access data that homeland security agencies hold about them? BANGLADESHIS CAN GET A COPY OF THEIR POLICE RECORDS FOR A FEE. f. Are there different rules for raw data (name, date of birth, etc.) versus case files (for example, records about enforcement actions)? NOT KNOWN. g. Does a non-citizen/resident have the right to sue the government to obtain these types of data? NO. Pasi