NEW DELHI, August 6. /TASS/. Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is considering Belarus, some Middle Eastern countries and Finland to seek asylum after she resigned and fled her country, India’s Free Press Journal reported, citing sources.
According to the report, Sheikh Hasina no longer plans to ask London for asylum as the British government indicated that the former Bangladeshi prime minister would possibly not receive legal protection from any future investigation into mass protests in her country.
So Sheikh Hasina, sources said, is considering several other options, including Belarus, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Finland. According to the sources, the former Bangladeshi prime minister is unlikely to leave India, where he is currently staying, in the next few days.
Sheikh Hasina resigned on Monday amid anti-government protests and flew to India in a Bangladesh Air Force plane. According to Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, she sought permission to come to India temporarily on very short notice. The Indian government decided to give her time to decide on her next course of action.
Following Sheikh Hasina's arrival in New Delhi, news reports said that she was seeking asylum in the UK. The former prime minister was expected to fly to London on Tuesday night, but this did not happen.
A British Home Office spokesman, when asked to confirm that Sheikh Hasina had sought asylum in the UK, replied that people in need of international protection should seek asylum in the first safe country they reach. According to the British official, there is no legal provisions allowing anyone to enter the UK to seek political asylum or temporary refuge.