The UAE urged its citizens to leave Bangladesh immediately and return “as soon as possible” due the ongoing protests that have engulfed the country.
“In light of current events unfolding in the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, the UAE Embassy in Dhaka urges all its citizens in the country to return to the UAE as soon as possible,” the embassy said in a statement on Tuesday.
The UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also warned UAE nationals from visiting areas witnessing riots and protests, and to avoid crowded places.
Bangladesh has been engulfed by protests and violence after what started as peaceful student protests in July against reservation quotas in government jobs escalated into a campaign for the ouster of the country’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Hasina had won a fourth straight term in January in an election boycotted by the opposition.
At least 400 people have been killed and over 11,000 people have been injured in the violence, where the demonstrators were met with excessive force, according to human rights organizations.
Hasina, 76, has resigned and was helicoptered out by the Bangladeshi military to neighboring India. She is expected to travel to London and seek asylum there.
