Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to tour Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka on March 26. During his three-day tour, PM Modi will join Bangladesh’s celebrations of 50 years of independence. Right before PM Modi’s Bangladesh visit, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar too will travel to Dhaka as the two countries aim look to sign a comprehensive treaty for economic cooperation.

This is PM Modi’s first foreign visit since the coronavirus pandemic began, and it shows how much importance India attaches to Bangladesh with China rooting itself aggressively in the country.

However, just ahead of PM Modi’s Bangladesh visit, a fresh Rohingya crisis has brought India and Bangladesh on opposing ends. More than 80 Rohingya refugees are facing an uncertain future in the Andaman Sea as Bangladesh has refused to take them back.

These Rohingya refugees were floating in a boat that malfunctioned in the Adaman Sea where the Indian Coast Guard found the refugees exhausted out of hunger and thirst last month.

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The refugees had set sail from Bangladesh for Malaysia on February 11. The engine of their boat failed mid-journey leaving the occupants adrift in the Indian Ocean.

When they left the massive camp of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh’s district bordering Myanmar, there were 90 Rohingya refugees onboard — 56 women, 21 men, eight girls and five boys. Four days later, the boat’s engine failed.

At least eight persons died before the Indian Coast Guard found their fishing boat. They were hungry and thirsty and were suffering from extreme dehydration.

India is feeding the survivors and providing medical treatment to them but it is not planning, at least yet, to take them ashore. India has communicated informed Bangladesh about the Rohingya survivors.

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