Has the state minister for foreign affairs renounced his British citizenship?

Humaiun Kobir took oath as state minister for foreign affairs (technocrat) last Friday. Before that, he served as the prime minister’s adviser on foreign affairs with the rank of state minister.

Although born in Sylhet, Humaiun Kobir moved to the United Kingdom with his family when he was just two and a half years old. He grew up there and pursued higher education. He was involved in politics with the UK Labour Party. At one point, he also obtained British citizenship. His appointment as state minister for foreign affairs has raised questions about whether he has renounced his foreign citizenship.

According to sources at Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after taking charge as the prime minister’s foreign affairs adviser on 17 February this year, Humaiun Kobir surrendered his ordinary (green) passport on 23 February.

He obtained an official or diplomatic (red) passport that same month. He first used the red passport to travel to Saudi Arabia that month. Over the past six months, he has made at least 11 overseas trips on his official passport, including visits to the United States, China, Russia, Türkiye, India, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Mauritius and the Philippines.

It is worth noting that people who are citizens of another country by birth can retain passports of both their country of birth and the United Kingdom if they later acquire British citizenship.

Several leaders of the UK BNP have confirmed that Humaiun Kobir is a British citizen. However, they could not confirm whether he renounced his British citizenship before taking charge as state minister for foreign affairs.

Sources within the Bangladesh government also said they had no information that Humaiun Kobir had submitted a letter applying to renounce his citizenship.

Humaiun Kobir was contacted by phone several times on Saturday to ask whether he had renounced his foreign citizenship. However, he could not be reached. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ public relations department was also contacted, but no response was received.

Article 56 of Bangladesh’s Constitution states that the president shall appoint the prime minister and other ministers, state ministers and deputy ministers. It further provides that at least nine-tenths of them must be appointed from among members of Parliament, while no more than one-tenth may be appointed from among persons qualified to be elected as members of Parliament.

In other words, up to one in every 10 ministers, state ministers and deputy ministers may be appointed from outside Parliament. However, such a person must be eligible for election to Parliament.

Article 66(2) (C) of the Constitution states that a person shall not be qualified for election as, or to remain a member of, Parliament if “he acquires the citizenship of, or acknowledges or affirms allegiance to, any foreign state.”

There are precedents of people renouncing foreign citizenship before parliamentary elections. For example, before the 13th parliamentary election held on 12 February, current Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Abdul Awal Mintoo renounced his US citizenship. State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shama Obaed also renounced her US citizenship.

According to reports in various media outlets at the time, 23 candidates in the 13th parliamentary election applied to renounce foreign citizenship before contesting the election. They included candidates from the BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami, National Citizen Party (NCP), Jatiya Party, Khelafat Majlis and Islami Andolan Bangladesh.

At the time, the Election Commission declared the nomination papers valid for candidates who were able to provide evidence that they had applied to renounce their foreign citizenship.

Foreign citizenship has also been an issue before previous national elections. For example, in the 12th parliamentary election in 2024, the nomination of Shammi Ahmed, then an Awami League candidate and the party’s international affairs secretary, was cancelled in the Barishal-4 (Mehendiganj-Hizla) constituency because she held Australian citizenship.

Questions also arose over the Dutch citizenship of Awami League candidate Shamim Haque in the Faridpur-3 constituency. He submitted documents to the Election Commission in support of his renunciation of citizenship. Allegations of forgery were later raised concerning those documents. He ultimately remained in the electoral race.

Senior Supreme Court lawyer Sharif Bhuiyan believes that, constitutionally, a person holding foreign citizenship cannot become a state minister in Bangladesh. He told Prothom Alo that the public does not know whether Humaiun Kobir has renounced his foreign citizenship or even applied to do so.

Whether foreign citizenship has actually been renounced is determined under the law of the foreign country. Simply submitting an application does not mean that citizenship has been renounced; the country concerned must review and dispose of the application. He said Humaiun Kobir was appointed without clearly informing the public about these matters, leaving questions over whether his appointment as state minister is constitutional.

Humaiun Kobir was born in Hobospur village of Osmaninagar upazila in Sylhet. According to a source familiar with the matter, he earned a bachelor’s degree with honours in international relations from the University of Sussex in the UK.

He also obtained three separate master’s degrees from the London School of Economics and Political Science, the University of Cambridge and Leeds Law School. During his professional career, he held important positions at senior levels of the British government, including in the office of the Mayor of London.

Humaiun Kobir began his political career in the UK Labour Party. Former Tower Hamlets Council deputy mayor Ohid Ahmed Chowdhury told Prothom Alo that Humaiun Kobir served as secretary of the Labour Party’s Bethnal Green and Bow branch from 2006 to 2009.

On 22 October 2025, Humaiun Kobir was appointed BNP joint secretary general in charge of international affairs.