Seek asylum or return to Bangladesh? What’s next for Sheikh Hasina?

A day after Sheikh Hasina’s sudden arrival from Bangladesh on Monday (August 5), External Affair Minister S Jaishankar had told both houses of Parliament that she had requested for approval “at very short notice” to come to India “for the moment”. Three days on, it was still not clear what her future plans are, Jaishankar’s ministry said on Thursday.

Speculation has been rife that Hasina may seek or has sought asylum in the UK, but her US-based son Sajeeb Wazed Joy dismissed those reports. He said reports of Hasina seeking asylum in the UK or any other country were “rumours” and so were those claiming that her US visa had been revoked.

A question of when

“At this point, she wants to go back to Bangladesh. It’s a question of when rather than if,” he told news agency PTI.

However, the question is, when will the situation be conducive for the former prime minister of Bangladesh to return home? As her government fell, following her hasty departure as the army insisted that her life was under threat, leaders and activists of her party Awami League have been butchered across her country.

Even though Joy claimed that Hasina would return to Bangladesh precisely because of that, and would not leave her partymen alone, the practical possibilities of that look slim.

Not requested for asylum anywhere

On Monday, as she was hastily flown out of Dhaka in a military aircraft, reports came in that she would land in India and move on to the UK. However, her plane landed in an IAF base in Gaziabad, but there has been no news of her speculated departure to the UK since.

For now, she is in an undisclosed “safe” location, under the watch of Indian intelligence officials.

Joy told news portal NDTV that Hasina had not made any formal requests for asylum in any country, so far, not even India. It has been widely reported that both the US and the UK have denied her asylum, which he rubbished. “She has not requested for asylum anywhere,” he told NDTV.

Hasina had planned retirement

Hasina’s left Bangladesh along with her sister Sheikh Rehana, who is a UK citizen. The latter’s daughter, Tulip Siddiqui, is a Labour Party MP, while Hasina’s daughter, Saima Wazed Putul, works in Delhi, in the World Health Organisation.

Joy also told NDTV that the 76-year-old Hasina was contemplating retirement from politics, which she would have done anyway. He said she had planned this to be her last term. Hasina had taken charge of the Bangladesh government for the fourth straight term in January this year.

US ruled out?

On reports of her seeking asylum in the UK, that country’s Home Office reportedly said that their immigration rules do not allow anyone to travel there to seek asylum or temporary refuge and that they must do so “in the first safe country they reach”.

Even though Joy himself is based in Washington DC, Hasina may not opt for asylum there since she has ties with the US grew increasingly frosty over her tenure. While US has constantly stressed on the need for “free and fair elections” in Bangladesh, which it claimed the Haisna government did not allow, she repeatedly denied it and even publicly accused the US of trying to topple her government.

While Joy rubbished claims of the US revoking Hasina’s visa, there has been no official word from the US authorities either.

The India option

The Indian government, which has been an all-weather ally of Hasina, has given her time to decide on her next move, it said at an all-party meeting on Tuesday. However, if she does apply for refuge, New Delhi will face a diplomatic dilemma because agreeing to shelter her may spoil its relationship with the new Md Yunus-led interim government in Bangladesh, and those in future, but it cannot ignore Hasina’s long-standing ties with India either.

Even after her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahaman, and most of her other family members were assassinated in 1975, she had been given refuge by the Indira Gandhi government. She left for Bangladesh once she was ready and went on to become the prime minister of her country for five terms, which makes her the longest serving female head of government in the world.

Joy had initially said that she did not intend to return to her country ever, but now he insists that the she will surely return, either as a “retired or active” politician. When that happens remains to be seen.