Sending convicted Bangladeshis from Britain is a ‘sensitive issue,’ said UK Foreign Ministry Permanent Under Secretary Sir Simon McDonald.
His remarks came on Wednesday (Apr 24) in response to a query about how some convicts who have taken shelter at the UK, taking advantage of its liberal policies, can be brought back to Bangladesh.
Mc Donald was speaking at a lecture at the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies after the third strategic dialogue with Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque on Wednesday (Apr 24).
“This is a sensitive issue, but here relations go on very smoothly between Dhaka and London,” he said.
He added that the many cases pop up and more than 90 percent of them are smoothly resolved due to the good working relations between the missions in London and Dhaka.
BNP acting Chairman Tarique Rahman who has a life sentence on his head in the Aug 21 grenade attack case and war criminal Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin are amongst some of the convicts who are residing in Britain.
In the earlier strategic dialogue, Britain had agreed to cooperate with Bangladesh in sending back convicted Bangladeshis.
“The UK reaffirmed its commitment to assisting Bangladeshi investigative, prosecuting, and judicial authorities in combating crime and ensuring that those accused of criminal offences are not able to escape justice by crossing national borders. Both sides agreed to deepen cooperation further in this important area, including Mutual Legal Assistance and extradition requests,” stipulated the joint statement of the second strategic dialogue.
Meanwhile, an official who attended the third dialogue said, the issue wasn’t discussed in the formal strategic dialogue meeting.
However, foreign secretary Shahidul Haque after the dialogue had a closed-door meeting with his British counterpart at state guest house Padma.