Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is likely to stay in India for longer than expected, according to top government sources. The stay will, however, be on visa and not in asylum or refugee category, they added.
Hasina resigned as the PM and fled the country with her sister Sheikh Rehana, following violent protests against her government over a controversial quota system in jobs. She flew to the Hindon air base, near Delhi, in a Bangladesh military aircraft on Monday. There were reports that they were was seeking asylum in the United Kingdom (UK), where Rehana’s daughter Tulip Siddiq is a Member of the British Parliament for the Labor Party. However, it hasn’t worked out so far. The United States, too, reportedly revoked Hasina’s visa. She is now exploring her options for asylum in the UAE and European countries.
“Her safe departure to any country is not working out right now. We don’t have asylum or refugee laws in India. We have deliberately not brought in such laws," said sources. “The legal position is we can’t keep anyone on refugee or asylum status. The Dalai Lama is here because of government policy," sources said.
According to sources, asylum and refugee laws are creating problems worldwide. “Once you give refugee and asylum status, they demand their rights and go to courts. This creates more problems. We allow stay on case-to-case basis, but don’t have a law as such," said sources.
“If we make a law, then someone from Iran, Afghanistan or Pakistan can come and demand asylum. They will go to court and courts will take long to decide. By then, you will have settlements," they said.
The UK, too, is looking into repealing the asylum law taking into account the problems and riots by immigrants or asylum seekers, they added.
‘HASINA WILL RETURN TO BANGLADESH’
Hasina will be back in the country as soon as democracy is restored, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy said on Thursday and blamed Pakistan’s intelligence agency, ISI, for fuelling the ongoing unrest in the country. Prof Mohammad Yunus took oath as the head of Bangladesh’s interim government on Thursday.
In an exclusive interview with PTI, Joy said that although 76-year-old Hasina would definitely return to Bangladesh, it has not yet been decided whether she will be back as a “retired or active" politician. He also asserted that the members of the Sheikh Mujib (Sheikh Mujibur Rahman) family will neither abandon its people nor leave the beleaguered Awami League in the lurch.
He expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government for protecting his mother and appealed to India to help build international opinion and exert pressure to restore democracy in Bangladesh.
The toll in the anti-government protests in Bangladesh climbed to 440 on Wednesday, with the recovery of 29 more bodies of Hasina’s Awami League party members across the country through Tuesday, taking the overall toll to 469 in nearly three weeks since the protests began in July.
With Agency Inputs
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