‘I feel helpless’: India-Bangladesh tensions deny patients medical access

India has scaled back visa operations in Bangladesh, hitting thousands of patients who visit its hospitals for critical care, and bleeding India’s own medical tourism industry of revenue.

Dhaka, Bangladesh – Khadiza Khatun’s life took a devastating turn in September when doctors at Dhaka Medical College Hospital informed her that her 37-year-old husband, Mohammad Nuri Alam, urgently needed a liver transplant – a procedure unavailable in Bangladesh.

After careful research, they decided to go to India’s Asian Institute of Gastroenterology in Hyderabad, a trusted destination for many Bangladeshi patients.

But three months later, they are yet to secure visas for the trip. Amid escalating tensions between India and Bangladesh since the August ouster of Sheikh Hasina, an ally of New Delhi’s, from Dhaka, Indian authorities have significantly scaled back visa operations in Bangladesh.

The result: Khadiza and her husband have already missed two hospital appointments, on November 20 and December 20, and are unsure about whether they’ll be able to get to India in time for January 10, the next date the medical facility in Hyderabad has given them.

“We’ve tried everything since October – approaching travel agencies, seeking help from friends in government,” she told Al Jazeera. “India remains our only hope.”

Faced with unaffordable treatment options in Thailand and other countries, Khadiza is left watching her husband’s health deteriorate while relying on daily symptomatic treatment in Dhaka hospitals – hoping that the new year will bring her the visas her husband and she desperately need. “I feel helpless, running between hospitals without a solution,” said the mother of two.

Khadiza’s struggle reflects a larger crisis affecting