Work permits of two Bangladeshi workers cancelled over extremist social media posts

The work permits of two Bangladeshi workers in Singapore have been cancelled following investigations by the Internal Security Department (ISD) into alleged extremist social media posts in July.

In response to queries from The Straits Times, the ISD said on Friday, 17 July 2026, that the two men, Tayani Md Risad, 25, and Islam Sahedul, 37, had been repatriated to Bangladesh. An ISD spokeswoman said the pair were investigated separately in July over the posts.

According to the ISD, Risad had expressed support for Bangladeshi radical Islamist writer Shafiur Rahman Farabi, who is said to have incited violence against secular and atheist bloggers. Farabi is also alleged to be linked to Hizb ut-Tahrir, a group banned by the Bangladeshi government.

The ISD said Sahedul had made inflammatory posts on the Israel-Iran conflict. He was also said to have posted divisive religious views, referring to Muslims who do not wish to be governed under Islamic law as infidels.

The two men are not connected to any cases previously announced by the ISD concerning self-radicalised individuals dealt with under the Internal Security Act, the spokeswoman said.

She added that the investigations did not find any indication that the men intended to carry out terrorist attacks, or that they were involved in terrorism activities in Singapore.

"However, their extremist and divisive views are inimical to Singapore's multiracial and multi-religious society," she said. It is not known what work the pair were doing in Singapore.

According to a report by the Daily Sun, the two men were detained on arrival at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka. Authorities were reported to have seized three phones and three passports from them.

On Thursday, 9 July 2026, the pair were brought before a Dhaka court, where the authorities applied for further remand. The Daily Sun reported that police said the men had admitted to being involved with militant groups while in Singapore.

Police were reported to have said that more time was needed to interrogate the men on their alleged links, networks and funding sources.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Jewel Rana granted a three-day remand after police sought five days. No further developments have been reported by Bangladeshi outlets since.

During the hearing, Risad was reported by The Business Standard to have said that he had been detained in Singapore over Facebook posts he made in 2023. He said the posts concerned another group, Hefazat-e-Islam in Bangladesh, and its leader.

While granting the application, the judge questioned the men over their alleged involvement in such groups. "You are remittance warriors. Why did you need to get involved in these matters?" he was quoted as saying.

The term "remittance warriors" refers to those who leave their countries for hard labour jobs overseas so they can send money home. The Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit was reported to have later taken the pair into custody.

The case follows earlier incidents involving Bangladeshi workers. In 2020, a Bangladeshi construction worker who had worked in Singapore since 2017 was arrested under the Internal Security Act, having reportedly been radicalised by pro-ISIS material online.

In 2016, the ISD detained eight Bangladeshi nationals in the construction and marine industries. They were described by the authorities as members of a clandestine group called the Islamic State in Bangladesh, and were said to have held documents on weapons and bomb-making.

In 2015, 27 Bangladeshis working in the construction industry were arrested after allegedly forming a jihadist cell and considering waging armed jihad overseas. They were later deported.

Background: Bangladeshi workers in Singapore

Bangladesh is a major source of migrant labour for Singapore, chiefly in the construction, marine shipyard and process sectors.

According to Bangladesh's Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), 70,056 Bangladeshis secured jobs in Singapore in 2025. The city-state hired 53,265 Bangladeshi workers in 2023 and a record 64,383 in 2022.

Remittances underpin this movement of labour. The BMET said money sent home by some five million Bangladeshis working overseas reached a record of more than US$30 billion in the 2024-2025 financial year.

For a broader sense of scale, Singapore's Ministry of Manpower (MOM) figures put Singapore's total foreign workforce at about 1.64 million as of December 2025, including 316,900 migrant domestic workers.

Of that total, 482,600 held Work Permits in the construction, marine shipyard and process sectors — the categories in which Bangladeshi workers are concentrated. Singapore does not publish a breakdown of the foreign workforce by nationality.