Visas issued by New Delhi to Bangladeshis have dropped from 8,000 a day pre-August to 1,000, one report said.
Kamran Reza Chowdhury/Dhaka
Beijing hopes to earn a slice of the U.S. $5 billion Bangladeshis spend abroad annually on healthcare after New Delhi let go its share when it drastically curtailed visa issuances amid a rift with Dhaka, experts said.
Bangladesh and China will discuss expanding cooperation in health tourism and the medical sector during the first official visit to China next week by Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, the head of the interim Bangladeshi government, a senior foreign ministry official here said.
“Already, the Chinese authorities had designated four hospitals in Kunming for providing health services to the Bangladeshi patients,” Mohammed Nore-Alam, head of the East Asia desk at the foreign ministry, told BenarNews.
“Discussions are [also] underway to set up a big Chinese-funded hospital in Dhaka.”
Yunus’ three-day trip from March 26 to 29 will include a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on March 28.
Two months ago in January, Bangladeshi Foreign Adviser Touhid Hossain’s first official visit was also to China. Bangladesh media reported that in a meeting with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, Hossain had asked Beijing to help with medical treatment for Bangladeshis.
A group of Bangladeshis, including patients, doctors and officials on March 10 went to the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming, the closest major Chinese city to Bangladesh, to see the medical facilities there.
The contingent was seen off at Dhaka airport by Bangladesh officials and China’s envoy in Dhaka, Yao Wen, who later spoke to reporters.
“A friend in need is a friend indeed,” Yao said.
Yao said that four top public hospitals in Kunming – a two-and-a-half-hour flight from Dhaka – had been designated to accept patients from Bangladesh.
BenarNews contacted the Chinese embassy in Dhaka by email for more details about the cooperation but did not immediately hear back.
A considerable portion of Bangladeshis seeking medical treatment abroad would go across the border to India’s hospitals and clinics, mainly in the eastern city of Kolkata, where the culture and language is the same as that in Bangladesh.
Some 2.12 million people from Bangladesh visited India in 2023, according to data from the Indian tourism board data, which showed the figure made up nearly 20% of total annual tourists.
Mostafizur Rahman, a fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue, said that on average, 250,000 Bangladeshis go to India for medical tourism.
But after a student-led mass movement last August ousted Sheikh Hasina from the prime minister’s post, they could not after India briefly suspended issuing visas for Bangladeshis, citing the law and order situation in the neighboring nation.
When New Delhi resumed giving out visas, it issued them only for Bangladeshi patients who were in dire need, according to a March 7 report by the well-regarded Indian newspaper, The Hindu.
India used to grant around 8,000 visas a day to Bangladeshis pre-August, but that has since dwindled to fewer than 1,000, the newspaper reported.
New Delhi claims a staff shortage is the reason visa issuances have dropped, but sources told The Hindu it was actually a result of the steep deterioration of ties with Bangladesh after the ouster of Hasina, whose government was extremely close to India.
Among the reasons for the rift is Dhaka’s unhappiness that New Delhi does not curb Hasina – who fled to India after her ouster – from making inflammatory statements.
A second big reason is India’s accusations about crimes against the Hindus in Muslim-majority Bangladesh since the overthrow of Hasina, who was considered a protector of minority communities.
Although these accusations and reports were debunked by respected international news agencies and fact-checking institutions, the supporters of the Hindu nationalist BJP-led Indian government have continued to spread fake news.
BenarNews contacted the Indian embassy in Dhaka by email for comments about the drop in issued visas but did not immediately hear back.
Munshi Fayez Ahmad, a former Bangladesh ambassador to China, said that Beijing’s move to offer health services in Kunming was aimed at exploiting the opportunity created by India.
“Not that China will give the service for free; they will provide services for commercial purposes,” he told BenarNews.
“We need this service, too. This is a win-win situation for both sides.”
Wahidul Alam, an observer of the tourism and aviation sector in Bangladesh, told BenarNews that China had a well-designed plan to attract patients from Bangladesh.
“Chinese authorities currently take seven days to issue medical visas. They have already announced that the visa processing time for medical treatment will be reduced further,” Alam said.
Additionally, many Chinese airlines operate daily flights to Kunming.
“The cost of treatment in China is a little bit higher than that of India but cheaper than Bangkok and Singapore. But their service is good,” Alam said.
“One of the major problems in medical tourism [to China] was the language barrier. Now Chinese hospitals have appointed Bengali people who know Chinese.”
Rahman, with The Centre for Policy Dialogue, said that India may provide cheaper medical services than China.
“[But] people will go [to China] because we need medical treatment. When demand is there, supply will automatically be there,” he told BenarNews.
“But I emphasize that we should improve our domestic health system. If we can build eight big modern hospitals in eight divisional cities, the people would not go abroad, and we could save our foreign currency.”
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