Staff Reporter :
On the eve of the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Seville, Spain, Bangladeshi civil society organisations had issued a powerful call to action: cancel illegitimate loans, stop illicit financial flows, and uphold economic justice.
At a human chain event held Friday in front of the National Press Club under the banner “Not Debt Repayment, We Demand Justice: Cancel the Debt, Change the System,” speakers from more than a dozen rights-based organizations demanded immediate cancellation of unfair debts, return of laundered money, and formation of an independent loan review commission.
The demonstration was organised by EquityBD, COAST Foundation, Waterkeeper Bangladesh, and other groups, as part of the “Global Day of Action on Finance” by APMDD.
Speakers highlighted alarming trends in Bangladesh’s economy: 56% of the population lives in high climate-risk zones, poverty is rising at 18.7%, and child marriage affects over half of girls. Despite this, the country’s debt burden continues to grow, influenced by conditions imposed by the IMF and other international lenders.
Rezaul Karim Chowdhury of EquityBD criticized the lack of parliamentary oversight in mega-project loans and demanded that rich nations including the UK, USA, Germany, and Switzerland stop enabling illicit financial inflows and return stolen assets. “These are illegitimate debts. Bangladesh should not be forced to repay them,” he said.
Other speakers decried tax reforms that disproportionately affect the poor, noting a 33% rise in Bangladeshi bank deposits in Switzerland in 2024 alone. More than $240 billion has been laundered from Bangladesh in the past 15 years-enough to repay the country’s foreign debt, they argued.
Environmental and development activists demanded that climate financing be provided as grants, not loans. “Climate finance is our right, not charity,” said Md. Motahar Hossen of the Bangladesh Climate Change Journalist Forum.
