Indian visa crisis spells huge trouble for Bangladeshi patients

Akhtari Banu, a resident of Birladaho in Rajshahi’s Puthia Upazila, has been receiving treatment at the Christian Medical College, widely known as CMC, in Chennai since 2017.

She has undergone four surgeries at the hospital, the most recent being a sinus operation in early July 2023.

For her follow-up visit, she scheduled an appointment with her doctor for Oct 25 but has faced complications with her visa application.

Akhtari could not pay the fee despite applying online at the Indian Visa Application Centre, or IVAC, in Rajshahi.

While struggling with an infection at her surgery site, Akhtari visited the Assistant High Commission of India in Rajshahi in hopes of resolving her issues but was still unable to obtain a visa.

She told bdnews24.com, “I have had multiple treatments there and received my visa without issues before. I am a cancer patient. I had sinus surgery three months ago and another operation on my ovaries before that. Now I have an infection at the site of the sinus surgery. I do not know what to do.”

In the aftermath of the Anti-discrimination Student Movement and the subsequent fall of the Awami League government, India is only granting medical or emergency visas.

In addition, with only five visa application centres operating at a limited capacity, many applicants struggle to secure appointments to submit their applications.

Consequently, patients and their families who wish to seek treatment in India for serious ailments find themselves in difficult situations.

The Indian visa application centres were shut down on Jul 18 after a curfew was imposed during the violence surrounding the protests.

The closures continued with daily announcements, leading to indefinite suspensions after the Sheikh Hasina regime on Aug 5.

Two days later, the IVAC said in a statement: “Due to the unstable situation, all IVACs will remain closed until further notice. The next application dates will be communicated via SMS, and requests are made for passport collection on the next working day."

By mid-August, some visa centres partially reopened. On Aug 16, Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said only emergency and medical visas would be issued until the situation normalised.

Following this, protests erupted outside centres like Jamuna Future Park, with applicants demanding the return of their passports. In response, the centres in Jamuna Future Park and Satkhira were closed for security reasons.

On Sept 3, 13 out of 16 visa application centres reopened solely to return passports.

From Sept 22, the visa application centres in Dhaka, Chattogram, Sylhet, Khulna, Satkhira, Noakhali, Mymensingh, Barishal, Thakurgaon, Cumilla, Rangpur, and Rajshahi began limited operations.

Indian media outlet The Print reported on Sept 29 that the High Commission returned 20,000 passports to Bangladeshi citizens during this period, citing ‘protests and threats to the High Commission’.

On Sept 26, the IVAC said in a statement: “In five locations, IVACs have begun providing limited appointment slots for urgent medical and student visas for Bangladeshi citizens.”

“In addition, these five IVACs have opened limited appointment slots for emergency cases where Bangladeshi students and workers need to travel to a third country and already have visa appointments at foreign embassies in India.”

“These services will remain limited until IVAC resumes normal operations,” the statement said.

Due to these limited services, many Bangladeshi patients requiring urgent medical visas cannot secure their expected appointments, leaving patients like Akhtari and their families in a quandary.

Akhtari’s situation has been further complicated by her son-in-law’s health.

Following a biopsy after surgery in Bangladesh, it was revealed that he too has cancer. Akhtari is now trying to arrange his treatment at CMC Vellore, having secured an appointment for Oct 24 but facing issues submitting the visa fee.

Visa applicants claim that while medical visas have generally been easier to obtain with the right paperwork and hospital appointments, the current situation has created complications even for medical visas.

Akhtari’s family is urging for a quick resolution to the visa issue amidst their ongoing medical struggles.

Trisha Samira, an employee of a private company, has been treating her mother’s liver cirrhosis at Apollo Hospital in Kolkata since March 2023.

Although they were due for a follow-up in August, they could not go due to the student protests. When the limited visa process resumed, they started applying in late September.

Trisha submitted her online application on Oct 1 and has been struggling to secure an appointment slot for over 11 days.

Trisha said, “Because of regular treatment, my mother did not have water accumulation in her liver. But now, due to the lack of treatment, we are seeing that.”

Trisha expressed concerns about not being able to see the doctor in Bangladesh whom they had been consulting, fearing the implications of switching doctors.

She mentioned that the doctor she previously consulted was no longer available.

Trisha is also apprehensive about switching from one type of treatment to another with a different doctor.

Rokshana Juthi, a bank official, had her father undergo surgery for ampullary cancer in July. His condition fluctuates between stable and deteriorating.

Rokshana wishes to take her 58-year-old father to Mumbai’s Tata Memorial Hospital for further treatment and has already received an invitation letter from the hospital.

However, after the limited visa process began in September, she has been unable to secure an appointment to submit her application despite applying online.

Due to her father’s deteriorating health, he is currently admitted to a hospital in Dhaka, and they are waiting for a schedule to submit his visa application.

"I have applied several times. The application deadline passes, but I do not get a slot," Juthi told bdnews24.com.

“He is sometimes well enough to stay at home, but then he falls ill and requires hospitalisation. I am at a loss as to what will happen,” she added.

bdnews24.com has attempted to contact the Indian High Commission for comment regarding this patient crisis, but no official response has been received.

At the end of September, during a meeting between India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Bangladesh’s Foreign Advisor Touhid Hossain on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, the issue of visa complications was raised.

The advisor later said, “We talked a bit about the visa situation. Many of those issuing visas have gone back to India, and their arrangements have not been fully established yet. We hope that this will be operational soon, and only health-related visas are being issued at this time.”

“We have been assured that they will be able to resume visa issuance quickly, and it should not take too long,” he added.

According to a report from The Print on Sept 30, India had issued nearly 1.6 million visas to Bangladeshis in 2023, of which 450,000 were medical visas.

By August of this year, 800,000 visas had been issued across 15 categories for Bangladeshi citizens, with medical visas accounting for 200,000 of those.

In recent years, there has been a steady increase in the tendency for Bangladeshis to seek medical treatment in India, alongside tourism and business trips.

Although all types of medical services are now available in Bangladesh, this trend has faced criticism.

However, those opting for treatment in India cite a lack of trust in Bangladeshi hospitals and physicians, along with better-quality services available at relatively lower costs in India.