Bangladesh has lodged a “strong protest” over the arrest of a diplomat in New York on charges of labour trafficking and assaults on his servant.
Published : 14 Jun 2017, 01:10 AM
“We have reasons to believe that the arrest is a clear violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 1963,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday night.
“We have lodged a strong protest with the chargé d' affaires of the United States Embassy in Dhaka,” it said, without explaining how the protest was lodged.
It just said Bangladesh conveyed its “concern”.
However, a foreign ministry official told bdnews24.com that the US Embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission Joel Reifman was called in to the foreign ministry and explanations were sought from him.
New York police arrested Bangladesh's Deputy Consul General in New York Shahedul Islam, 45, on charges of forcing his servant to work for his family in Queens without pay and assaulting him on several occasions on Monday.
Bail was set at $50,000 bond or $25,000 cash.
Bangladesh’s Consul General Shameem Ahsan in New York, other colleagues and relatives arranged a $50,000 bond for Shahedul.
The foreign ministry said it has been brought to their notice that the deputy consul general was arrested on “accusations of mistreating his domestic aide”.
“We would like to state that we had earlier reported about the missing of the domestic aide.”
The domestic aide went missing about 13 months earlier -- on May 17, 2016 -- from Shahedul’s residence, according to the statement.
“The incident was immediately reported to the Department of State by the Bangladesh Consulate General in New York and also by the Bangladesh Embassy in Washington DC on May 18 and 19, 2016 respectively.
“However, no update had been received on this matter from the Department of State before the arrest of Mr Islam,” said the foreign ministry.
The Bangladesh Embassy in Washington is in contact with the Department of State for resolution of the issue.
“We hope our concerns will be duly addressed. We will continue to monitor the situation and will extend assistance and cooperation as and when necessary.”