Future Uncertain for Sheikh Hasina
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 6: An uncertain future is staring at the deposed Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina who is waiting in an undisclosed place in India for clearance from the United Kingdom government to travel to that country but is reportedly getting a negative feedback from London.
The British immigration rules do not allow individuals to travel to that country to seek asylum or temporary refuge, the UK Home Office indicated on Tuesday as her passport as the Bangladesh prime minister is no longer valid after she was forced to quit the post.
The UK Labour Party government headed by Sir Keir Starmer also said individuals seeking asylum must do so “in the first safe country they reach” meaning that she should seek political asylum in India itself. “The UK has a proud record of providing protection for people who need it. However, there is no provision for someone to be allowed to travel to the UK to seek asylum or temporary refuge.” “Those who need international protection should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach – that is the fastest route to safety,” a UK Home Office spokesperson said, even as the sources indicated that a formal asylum request was still being processed by the UK government.
Ms Hasina, 76, was forced to resign as Prime Minister on Monday evening after violence erupted and fled Dhaka in a military aircraft – reportedly after the Bangladesh Army gave her a 45-minute ultimatum – and flew first to Hindon IAF base in Uttar Pradesh.
Sources last night said Ms Hasina would proceed on to London after her plane was refuelled. Since then, though, there has been no confirmation of the former Prime Minister’s schedule or her location. Sources have, though, said she was in “protective custody” of Indian intelligence services.
She is accompanied by her younger sister, Sheikh Rehana, who is a UK citizen, which could be useful to claim asylum in that country. Also, her niece, Tulip Siddiq, is a British Labour parliamentarian.
Ms Hasina’s daughter, Saima Wazed, is based in Delhi as the regional chief for the World Health Organization. This, though, may not open doors as she works for an international agency. Ms Hasina is also learnt to be studying her options with other countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia, including those where her immediate family resides: U.S., Finland and India.
According to officials, the UK government was worried about pressure from the rival Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) loyalists who are influential there, as well as concerns that Ms Hasina could be accused of Human Rights violations. In the past however, UK has allowed a slew of Pakistani leaders in exile, including Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto as well as the BNP’s Tariq Rehman to live there.
In Europe, Ms Hasina’s next option would be to travel to Helsinki where Ms Rehana’s son Radwan Mujib Siddiq “Bobby” lives, and married a Finnish national. Mr Siddiq was a “youth activist” in Bangladesh who edited a magazine, heading the Centre for Research & Information (CRI) and Young Bangla NGOs, and was frequently involved in government campaigns there. On a much-criticised trip to the UNGA in New York in 2021 during the Covid pandemic, Ms Hasina had made a stopover in Helsinki, ostensibly to spend time with her nephew there. The Finnish President Alexander Stubb’s office did not respond to a request for comment on a possible request from Ms Hasina however.
Ms Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed “Joy” lives in the U.S. state of Virginia along with his wife, an American lawyer. While he worked as a Digital Advisor to the Bangladesh government for years, Mr Wazed came under fire for sparking prosecutions of Grameen Bank founder and Nobel Laureate Mohammad Yunus who has now been named a key figure in the interim government.
Ms Hasina’s relationship with the Biden administration has been tense, especially after its May 2023 special visa policy to support “free and fair elections in Bangladesh” that led to sanctions against officials believed to be subverting the process. The US State department was very critical of the January 2024 elections as well, and in May this year, PM Hasina had, in veiled comments, accused a “western government” of trying to set up a military base in Bangladesh by force. Officials said they weren’t aware if Ms Hasina had applied for a US visa after fleeing Bangladesh, but confirmed that her present visa on her official passport would be “no longer valid” as she had resigned from her post.
Ms Hasina’s stay would perhaps be most awkward for New Delhi itself, despite historical relations through Bangladesh’s independence struggle and after, and the Narendra Modi government’s close ties with PM Hasina’s government for the past decade, said government sources. The events in Bangladesh present a problem for India, particularly if the UK turns down Sheikh Hasina’s asylum request. India also does not want to be seen as overtly backing the ousted leader because that may complicate the country’s relationship with the new government in Bangladesh, whatever it may be.
As New Delhi seeks to engage the new establishment in Dhaka and continue its strategic, trade and connectivity partnerships, the ousted PM’s presence here would be difficult to explain, especially if the interim government or a new dispensation demands her extradition to stand charges in Bangladesh. For similar reasons, the Modi government did not accept requests from former Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, or senior members of Afghanistan’s Ashraf Ghani government when they fled their respective countries.
In addition, Ms Hasina’s presence in India could lead to requests from more of her supporters from Bangladesh for asylum and give rise to suspicions that India was interfering in Bangladeshi politics. Pending an acceptance for Ms Hasina in one of the other countries she hopes to travel to, however New Delhi will host the Bangladeshi leader, as it did when she was last in exile, after the murder of her father and Bangladesh founder Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, her mother and nearly all other members of her family, in 1975.
