Bangladesh unrest may cause UK refugee crisis: British MP
Online Desk : Simon DanczukA British Member of Parliament (MP) has cautioned the 
UK government that hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshis would seek refuge in that country, should the current situation in Bangladesh continue to deteriorate.
In an opinion piece written in New Statesman on Monday, Simon Danczuk criticised the British MPs for ignoring the Bangladesh situation which he described as “a political powder keg” that “threatens to erupt in a bloody explosion of violence”.
Observing that democracy in Bangladesh is dead, the Labour Party MP expressed his views that economic sanctions may be the only way to rescue Bangladesh’s secular democracy.
He mentioned that political intimidation, disappearances and a culture of fear have become commonplace in the country since the last generational election on a day that saw 21 people killed.
He called on the British politicians to be more vocal about the Bangladesh situation, referring to the recent killing and suppression of the opposition and the media freedom.
Simon Danczuk also criticised the British foreign policy for focussing only on one international crisis such as Syria at the moment.
“But nearly 5,000 miles away in Bangladesh, a country with a population seven times that of Syria, a political powder keg threatens to erupt in a bloody explosion of violence,” he wrote in the article titled “Bangladesh: the UK’s next refugee crisis if we don’t act now”.
“Should that happen, the shockwaves will be felt much closer to home than many MPs realise.”
The UK is home to the largest Bangladeshi diaspora in Europe and the author, Simon Danczuk, is MP for Rochdale, representing more than 4,000 constituents of Bangladeshi origin.
He pointed out that ISIS and al-Qaeda linked groups claimed responsibility for more than 58 killings since last year but “the government refuses to acknowledge their involvement”.
“Gagging orders ban the media from publishing opposition statements and secular bloggers have been murdered by Islamic extremists,” he said.
The MP observed: “When freedom of speech is curtailed it creates a vacuum that can be, for some small groups of people, filled with extremist views. Violent protests in Bangladesh are escalating and people talk openly of civil war.”
“Such unrest would destabilise the region and result in mass migration on a scale that would make the influx of refugees into Europe in recent years look like a steady trickle,” he added.
“We can be sure that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Bangladeshi refugees would seek the safety of the UK if the situation continued to deteriorate.”
He doubted whether the UK’s “shambolic asylum system” would be able to prevent a twisted minority importing political tensions and violent extremist beliefs.
