Dr. Muhammad Yunus, often celebrated as the “Banker to the Poor,” stayed in a hotel suite in London costing a staggering £24,180—or BDT 40,00,339—during a four-day visit to the UK. The expense, covered by the Bangladesh High Commission, starkly contrasts with the everyday struggles of millions of ordinary Bangladeshis and raises serious questions about the ethics of such extravagance.
Documents accessed by Northeast News reveal that the Bangladesh High Commission in London spent approximately BDT 3.5 crore (£210,325) for the four-day trip. At the exchange rate of BDT 165.44 per pound, the total expense for just four days ballooned to BDT 3,47,96,168.
Yunus stayed in the ultra-luxurious “Dorchester Prestige Suite” at The Dorchester Hotel—at a rate of £6,045 per night. Another person in his entourage—believed to be his daughter, Deena Afroz Yunus—occupied the “Dorchester Suite,” racking up a bill of £20,000 or BDT 33,08,800 for the stay.
In total, the delegation booked 37 lavish rooms at the hotel, resulting in a “bedroom spend” of £198,135 or BDT 3,27,79,454.40. As if this weren’t excessive enough, the team also rented the “Park Suite” on June 12 for an “event,” shelling out another £2,000 or BDT 330,880.
The High Commission’s total expenditure for the Yunus-led delegation is estimated at a jaw-dropping BDT 6 crore. This includes hotel bills, airfare, fine dining, and expensive drinks—luxuries that are glaringly out of touch with the socio-economic reality of Bangladesh.
For example, the delegation’s dinners alone cost £6,500—BDT 10,75,360—over four days, a figure that would feed dozens of Bangladeshi families for months.
All this opulence comes at a time when Bangladesh ranks 151 out of 180 countries on Transparency International’s 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), and the country’s per capita income remains at just $2,820, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
The Dorchester Hotel describes itself as a sanctuary of “history, glamour and stories” and boasts rooms with private swimming pools, grand pianos, rooftop terraces, and “divinely comfortable beds.” The hotel is part of the Dorchester Collection, which owns elite properties in Paris, Milan, Dubai, Los Angeles, and is expanding to Tokyo.
While Yunus built his reputation by promoting microcredit and presenting himself as a friend to the poor, his taste for five-star luxury—funded by the public—tells a very different story.
