Pakistan Says It Gives Passports, Not Citizenship, to Rohingya

Arakan Now | July 25, 2025

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said his country is issuing passports to Rohingya Muslims but is not giving them citizenship. He made the statement during a visit to Dhaka, according to a release from Bangladesh’s Home Ministry.

“We are not giving them citizenship. But we are giving them passports with a different code or serial number so that they can be identified as Rohingya,” Naqvi told reporters after meeting his Bangladeshi counterpart, Jahangir Alam Chowdhury.

Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, is home to more than 400,000 Rohingya Muslims, based on unofficial estimates. It is the third-largest Rohingya population in the world, after Myanmar and Bangladesh. Pakistan issues passports to some Rohingya so they can migrate and settle in third countries.

This was the first official visit by a Pakistani minister to Bangladesh since 2012, when then-Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani visited.

During their meeting, Minister Chowdhury asked Pakistan to support the repatriation of Rohingya refugees. He said Bangladesh is hosting 1.3 million Rohingya “for the sake of humanity,” which has become a heavy burden for a developing country.

The two sides also discussed cooperation on counterterrorism, drug control, cybercrime, and police training. They agreed to finalize a deal on visa-on-arrival for diplomatic and official passport holders—a system that was suspended after the 1971 war. Chowdhury said the construction of a new Bangladeshi embassy building in Islamabad is also underway.

Officials from both countries say relations between Pakistan and Bangladesh have improved in recent months.