Relations between the neighbours are normal and “very sweet” and will not be affected: Momen

Bangladesh foreign minister A.K. Abdul Momen on Sunday said his country has requested India to provide a list of Bangladeshi nationals living illegally in the country and assured that it will allow them to return.

Responding to a question on the National Register of Citizens (NRC), Momen, who cancelled his visit to India on Thursday, said relations between the neighbours are normal and “very sweet” and will not be affected.

India has described the NRC process as its internal matter and assured Bangladesh that it would not be affected, he said.

The minister alleged that some Indian nationals were illegally entering Bangladesh with the help of middlemen for economic reasons.

“But if anybody other than our citizens enters Bangladesh, we will send them back,” he told the media here.

Momen said Bangladesh has requested New Delhi to provide a list of Bangladeshis living illegally in India, “if any”, to be repatriated.

“We will allow them as they have the right to enter their own country,” he said.

Asked why he had cancelled his India visit, the minister said he had a busy schedule and the minister of state for foreign affairs, Shahriar Alam, as well as the ministry’s secretary were abroad.

Momen had cancelled his tour a day after describing as “untrue” Union home minister Amit Shah’s comments on persecution of religious minorities in Bangladesh, fuelling speculation that Dhaka was conveying it was unhappy over the Citizenship Amendment Bill.

The external affairs ministry in New Delhi said that Momen had informed India that he was postponing his

trip because of scheduling issues, and clarified that Shah had spoken of religious persecution in Bangladesh during the military rule and not under the current government.

However, late on Wednesday night, the ministry had shared the itinerary of the visit, making it clear the cancellation was sudden. The visit was to begin on Thursday evening.

Bangladesh was learnt to have been upset following rollout of the NRC in Assam around four months ago even though India conveyed to it that the issue was an internal matter.

The NRC is a register of Indian citizens living in Assam since March 24, 1971, or before, and was meant to identify illegal Bangladeshi migrants in the state.

Out of 3.3 crore applicants, over 19 lakh people were excluded from the final NRC published on August 30.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had taken up the issue of NRC with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during their bilateral meeting in New York in September.