Starmer says Bangladesh is a ‘safe country’, but asylum seekers disagree
When Moinul fled Bangladesh for London last year, he didn’t expect to find himself at the centre of an inflamed political climate once again.
He arrived in Britain as a student, fleeing threats on his life due to his political affiliations in Sylhet, in northeastern Bangladesh.
As he awaits the outcome of his asylum application, he came across a video earlier this week of Keir Starmer, the leader of the UK Labour Party, appearing to single out Bangladeshi asylum seekers for deportation.
“I'll make sure we’ve got planes going off - not to Rwanda because that's an expensive gimmick. They will go back to the countries where people come from. That’s what used to happen,” Starmer said in an interview with The Sun.
He continued: "At the moment, people coming from countries like Bangladesh are not being removed."
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Faced with a backlash from Britain's sizeable Bangladeshi community, Starmer said on Thursday that he had not intended to “cause any concern or offence” and that he “values the incredible contribution” of British Bangladeshis.
"All I was saying is that as far as asylum returns are concerned, Bangladesh is a safe country," the Labour leader said.
Moinul, 31, challenged the opposition leader's assessment. “It was very sad to see,” he told MEE. “Does Starmer not take seriously how dangerous it would be if I was sent back to Bangladesh?”
Moinul was a local organiser in Sylhet for Jamaat-e-Islam, an opposition political party that has faced crackdowns by the Bangladeshi government over the past decade.
Many members of Jamaat have fled Bangladesh or remain in the country and attempt to hide their activities. Several of the party’s leaders have been given the death penalty in recent years.
“The government sent men to ransack my shop, and then they burned it to the ground,” Moinul said. “They physically attacked me. They also said they had CCTV footage showing me going to Jamaat meetings and were going to blackmail me.”
'They said I would be attacked'
Moinul said his brother was suspended from his job without explanation. He believes it was a form of collective punishment.
The 31-year-old asylum seeker, who lives in North London, has been waiting for a decision on his asylum claim for several months now.
“I had one interview with the Home Office. I showed them pictures and videos of everything: the attacks against me, the burned shop,” he said. “I don’t know when the decision will be or what the outcome will be.”
Bangladeshis seeking asylum in the UK are not all partisan activists.
Liton, 25, who, like Moinul, did not disclose his real name for security reasons, was forced to seek asylum over his social media posts.
“I criticised the government on Facebook,” he told MEE. “I said that they were weaponising the word ‘terrorism’ to lock up activists and journalists.”
“I also said some critical things about Bangladesh’s close, brotherly relationship with the far-right Hindu nationalist Indian government.”
Liton, who was studying in the UK when he made the comments, said he did not belong to any political party and was merely expressing his views on the government.
The secretary at his government-run school in Sylhet, a position closely linked to local government officials, threatened him over the posts.
“He messaged me and said I would be attacked by goons if I came back to Bangladesh,” said Liton.
Similar to Moinul's experience, Liton's family home in Bangladesh was searched, and his brother was physically assaulted and subsequently arrested.
Liton fears that if he returns to Bangladesh, he will be imprisoned under Bangladesh’s draconian cybercrime laws, which human rights groups have condemned.
'A human rights lawyer?'
In the year ending March 2024, there were 3,384 asylum applications from Bangladeshis seeking refuge in Britain.
Bangladesh ranked eighth among countries with the most asylum applications, following Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Eritrea, India, Turkey and Sudan.
Abdul Razzak, who volunteers as a translator in British asylum cases, said that many Bangladeshi asylum seekers have their applications granted based on human rights grounds.
“If they give a good interview and have corroborating evidence, often they are granted asylum on human rights grounds,” Razzak told MEE. “Starmer’s comments were in bad taste and should not be tolerated.”
On Wednesday, Sabina Akhtar, deputy leader of Tower Hamlets Labour in East London, resigned over Starmer’s comments.
“I cannot be proud of this party anymore when the leader of the party singles out my community and insults my Bangladeshi identity,” she said in a statement.
In Tower Hamlets, 35 percent of the total population is of Bangladeshi origin.
Starmer defended his reference by citing an agreement between Dhaka and London for the removal of irregular migrants as the basis for deeming Bangladesh a safe country for returns.
But Liton is highly suspicious about the memorandum between the two governments.
“The Bangladeshi government wants people like me to be deported back so they can take their revenge on us for daring to speak our minds.”
He finds Starmer’s background in human rights to be ironic.
“How can he be a former human rights lawyer and make those comments? He’s going against my human rights and he’s citing a Bangladeshi government that has no respect for human rights.”
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