Hajj for dual citizens: the Bangladesh quota is lawful, passport games are not

Performing Hajj from the United Kingdom has become hard for many British-Bangladeshi Muslims, writes Nazir Ahmed, a practising barrister in England and a specialist in constitutional and immigration law. He gives two reasons: the Hajj quota for British Muslims is small and fills quickly, and the cost is about two and a half to three times that paid by pilgrims travelling from Bangladesh.

So many travel to Bangladesh and go on its quota instead. In his column for Barta24 he says Bangladesh's quota is larger and goes unfilled every year, the cost is far lower, and a dual citizen is a full citizen of Bangladesh, so the law does not stand in the way. Holding and using two passports is also lawful, but on each leg of a journey the departure and arrival stamps should be in the same passport.

The difficulty comes on the way back. A Hajj visa from Bangladesh requires a return ticket, because one-way tickets are not accepted. Many pilgrims, he observes, quietly buy a separate one-way ticket from Saudi Arabia to London, take the boarding pass on a British passport and show immigration the Bangladeshi passport that carries the arrival stamp. He asks how ethical it is for a pilgrim to keep an immigration officer in the dark this way, and says that declaring everything and travelling on a UK-bound return ticket raises no legal or ethical problem.

His advice is not to take immigration and legal guidance from Hajj operators but to act by conscience, judgement and the law, and to consult an experienced lawyer where needed. Hajj is an obligatory act of worship, and on a journey as a guest of God's house pilgrims should avoid any deceit, falsehood or concealment and declare everything to the proper authorities.

He also urges travel agencies, Hajj operators and dual-citizen pilgrims to press the Saudi Hajj authorities for clear written guidance at airports on passport use by British-Bangladeshis travelling via Bangladesh, and for Hajj visas to be issued on one-way Dhaka-Saudi-London tickets.

The views are the writer's own.

Photo: Karim Manji / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Source: Barta24