THE findings of an investigation of the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and the Norwegian news site E24 that 532 Bangladeshis own real estate in Dubai could be a ground for Bangladesh authorities to carry forward the investigation and act accordingly. The report, Dubai Unlocked, the result of six months鈥� investigation based on data of 2022, says that scores of convicted criminals, fugitives, political figures and sanctioned individuals own real estate in Dubai. The people that the investigation has referred to include 532 Bangladeshis having owned 641 property with their value exceeding $225 million and no further details regarding their identity have been furnished. The reality at hand warrants that the government and the Anti-Corruption Commission should immediately launch an investigation of the issue, find the people who own real estate in Dubai, examine the source of their income and establish whether they have siphoned off the money to buy property there. The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project says that while the Dubai Land Development publishes detailed aggregate statistics on the real estate sector and detailed micro-data on the status characteristics of specific property, it does not publish information on foreign ownership of property. But the agency notes that it has access to several datasets at the individual property level as well as the break down by each nationality.
While the government and the Anti-Corruption Commission should launch the investigation, the Anti-Corruption Commission has been heard of doing almost nothing, at least nothing noticeable, after it said in April 2023 that it would investigate the allegations that 459 Bangladeshis bought property in Dubai illegally. The US-based Centre for Advanced Defence Studies in May 2022 published a paper, noting that Bangladeshis bought housing assets mainly in Gulf countries with money laundered there. The paper said that 459 Bangladeshis had owned 972 residential property in Dubai that is valued at $315 million. And of the assets, 64 were in the elite Dubai Marina are and 19 in Palm Jumeirah. Without giving out the names, the paper said that at least 100 villas and less than five buildings are said to have been owned by Bangladeshis on the locations. And, four to five Bangladeshis own property worth about $44 million. After a High Court order of April 2023, the Anti-Corruption Commission said that it would look into the allegations of the Bangladeshis having bought property in Dubai illegally. But after more than a year, nothing has been heard of any Anti-Corruption Commission plan for investigation. Both the reports came to light when illicit financial flows have greatly been in discussion amidst a shortage of the dollar that has been persisting for more than a couple of years.
Both the government and the Anti-Commission Commission must, in such a situation, look into the allegations, levelled by both the May 2022 paper of the Centre for Advanced Defence Studies and the May 2024 Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project report. And, there must not be any dithering about this.
