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Bangladesh Rejects Sheikh Hasina’s Passport Bid to Return Home and Contest the Election
By Maya Wilson
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Bangladesh’s interim government has rejected former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s request for a new passport, blocking her stated attempt to return from exile in India and contest the country’s upcoming general election in February. The decision leaves the 79-year-old former leader unable to obtain the travel document she sought, with the government saying her previous passport has been cancelled and no replacement will be issued.
Home Affairs Adviser Jahangir Alam Chowdhury said Hasina could not return to Bangladesh and that authorities would not issue her a new passport, according to reporting by the German Press Agency, dpa, carried by Bernama on Wednesday, November 11.
A foreign ministry official confirmed that Hasina had sought a new passport. Her application, submitted on her behalf by her party, the Awami League, stated that she wanted to return to Bangladesh to contest the upcoming general election.
The rejection creates another obstacle for the former prime minister as the country prepares for the February vote. Hasina has lived in India since fleeing Bangladesh in August 2024, when weeks of student-led protests brought down her government. Her previous passport was revoked after she was ousted.
Her request comes against the background of a criminal case that has made her return politically and legally contentious. In November last year, Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal sentenced Hasina to death in absentia for crimes against humanity over the crackdown on the student-led uprising. Up to 1,400 people were killed during the unrest, according to the figures in the reporting carried by Bernama.
The sentence was handed down while Hasina was outside Bangladesh. She has remained in India since her departure in August 2024. The passport application therefore sought a route back to a country where she faces a death sentence, as well as an opportunity to take part in the coming election.
The interim administration, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, has repeatedly demanded that India extradite Hasina to Bangladesh. India has not commented on the passport issue, according to the report.
The passport decision and the extradition demand are separate parts of the wider dispute over Hasina’s return. The government’s stated position on the document is that her previous passport has been cancelled and a new one will not be issued. The report does not say whether the interim government has taken any new action on its extradition requests in connection with the application.
The Awami League applied for the passport on Hasina’s behalf, but the available reporting does not provide a response from the party to the government’s rejection. It also does not say whether Hasina has announced any alternative plan to return or participate in the election.
Bangladesh is due to hold general elections in February, putting the passport decision within a compressed political timetable. Hasina’s application said she wanted to return to contest that election, but the government’s refusal means the request has not provided her with a new travel document.
The episode highlights the unresolved consequences of the 2024 uprising: the former prime minister remains in exile, the interim government continues to seek her extradition, and the country is approaching an election in which she had sought to participate. For now, the government has made clear that it will not issue the passport she requested.
— Maya Wilson, World Desk
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