Staff Reporter :
The interim government of Bangladesh has requested the Indian government to expedite the issuing of visas for the Bangladeshi citizens as the Indian visa centre is not issuing visas expect for emergencies.
“The issuing of visa is completely a sovereign matter. We have told Indian High Commissioner that many Bangladeshis have to obtain visas for other countries after physical appearance before the embassies of other countries located in India. If these people cannot get India visa, they cannot apply for visas for other countries,” Foreign Adviser Md Touhid Hossain said on Thursday.
While briefing the journalists at his ministry, he said, “The Indian High Commission has informed us that they have insufficient manpower to issue huge volume of visas. These staffs left Bangladesh under security concerns. India has not said that visas would not be issued. We hope they would take steps.”
In reply to a question whether Bangladesh would send a message to India by slowing down visa issuance for their citizens, he said, “We have not imposed any restriction on visa issues for Indian citizens. They said they have done it for the shortfall of manpower.”
Currently India is only issuing limited visa on urgent basis including medical visas. Such situation has created following the step down of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a massive students-general people mass uprising in July and August.
Two days after the fall of Hasina on August 5, the Indian Visa Application Centre (IVAC) in a statement said, “Due to the unstable situation, all IVACs will remain closed until further notice. The next application dates will be communicated via SMS, and requests are made for passport collection on the next working day.”
Some visa centers partially reopened until mid-August. On August 16, Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal announced that only emergency and medical visas would be issued until the situation stabilized.
This led to protests outside centers like Jamuna Future Park, with applicants demanding the return of their passports. In response, the centers at Jamuna Future Park and Satkhira were closed for security reasons.
On September 3, 13 out of 16 visa application centers reopened specifically to return passports. Starting September 22, visa application centers in Dhaka, Chattogram, Sylhet, Khulna, Satkhira, Noakhali, Mymensingh, Barishal, Thakurgaon, Cumilla, Rangpur, and Rajshahi began limited operations.
The Indian media outlet The Print reported on September 29 that the High Commission returned 20,000 passports to Bangladeshi citizens during this time due to “protests and threats to the High Commission.”