Burmese Don’t Need Passports to Open Bank Accounts

Arab News Thursday, April 17, 2008

JEDDAH, 17 April 2008 — The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) has allowed Burmese residents in the Kingdom to open bank accounts without the need to present copies of their passport.

“Burmese nationals will be allowed to conduct all banking transactions, including opening of current, fixed and investment accounts as long as they hold valid resident permits,” SAMA said in a statement. “They don’t need to submit copies of their passports as is the case for other foreign nationals,” said the statement quoted in Al-Eqtisadiah.

However, SAMA urged Burmese residents intending to open bank accounts to give an undertaking that they would present copies of their passports after receiving them from their embassies.

“In order to renew their accounts, they should produce their passports, or a letter from the Interior Ministry, or the Passport Department,” the agency said. SAMA has also instructed banks to register the Burmese’s place of stay in the Kingdom. Applicants must bring an introduction letter from their employers, attested by the chambers of commerce and industry and other authorities.

SAMA said unemployed Burmese should bring an introductory letter from their Umda (chief of a residential district), attested by the police station in the area. They should also provide clear addresses, including phone numbers, places of residence and post boxes, if there is one.

An estimated 500,000 Burmese, most of them Rohingya Muslims, reside in the Makkah region. Most do not have contact with their mother country and have special residential status in the Kingdom.

Rohingyas, who form four percent of Burma’s population, are an indigenous people of Arakan, the western province of Burma bordering Bangladesh. Due to persecution, about 1.5 million Rohingyas have either been expelled or left Burma since 1948.