Sheikh Hasina, ousted from power in the July mass uprising and subsequently taking refuge in India on August 5 last year, had initially been expected to travel to London.
However, the British government ultimately refused to grant her asylum.
According to contemporaneous reports, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration was aware at the time that Hasina might seek refuge in the UK or another country. But Britain, along with several other nations, declined her request, directly rejecting the possibility.
In the wake of these refusals, the Indian government granted Hasina permission to stay in India “for as long as she wishes.”
This raised questions about why Britain and other nations refused asylum to Hasina, while other deposed leaders such as Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf, Nawaz Sharif, and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) acting chairman Tarique Rahman had previously found refuge in the UK during political crises.
Akbar Hossain, Press Minister at the Bangladesh High Commission in London, told Channel i Online that, to his knowledge, Hasina never formally applied for asylum in Britain after the July uprising.
“I saw reports on social media and in some outlets on August 5 suggesting such a move, but upon joining the High Commission, I found no official documents. She may have sought it privately, but not through official channels. By that time, she was no longer in government, so such matters wouldn’t normally proceed through official diplomatic channels,” he said.
The UK has a long history of granting asylum to political leaders, but, according to Hossain, dictators are often given refuge in Middle Eastern countries instead.
Indian broadcaster NDTV, citing the UK Home Office, reported that British immigration law does not allow someone to travel to the UK solely to apply for political asylum. As per regulations, an applicant must file for asylum in the first safe country they reach– in Hasina’s case, India.
After her asylum requests to multiple countries, including the UK, were denied, India offered her long-term stay as a “guest,” a move that sparked questions in the Indian parliament. Opposition MPs, including Asaduddin Owaisi, questioned why the deposed Bangladeshi prime minister was granted refuge in India and allowed to make political statements against Bangladesh’s government.
At the same time, reports emerged that the United States had revoked Hasina’s visa. Media outlets such as News18 stated she had also failed in attempts to travel to several European countries.
A BBC Bangla report from New Delhi confirmed that Britain had refused Hasina’s entry, despite her holding a Bangladeshi diplomatic passport at that time and her sister Sheikh Rehana being a dual UK citizen. The British government, through its High Commissioner in Delhi, informed the newly elected Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s administration that Hasina would not be permitted to travel to the UK.
A reliable diplomatic source in Delhi told Channel i Online that neither India nor Britain disclosed the exact reasons for cancelling Hasina’s London travel, and neither government was obliged to do so.
However, the source noted that both India’s decision to host her and Britain’s refusal were political in nature.
Dr. Saima Ahmed, Assistant Professor of International Relations at Dhaka University, explained that political asylum cases are decided individually.
“When Sheikh Hasina was ousted on August 5, she faced allegations of human rights violations and the killing of hundreds. International outlets such as Al Jazeera, BBC, and The New York Times had widely reported on her government’s alleged massacres and dictatorship. For countries that promote human rights and democracy, granting asylum to her would have been politically damaging,” she said.
According to Dr. Saima, India’s record on human rights is also controversial, and it has consistently supported Hasina’s rule over the past 16 years. “India gave refuge not in the name of democracy, but in support of authoritarianism,” she said, adding that it was natural for Britain and other democratic countries to deny her asylum.
