The government has decided to operate special flights to 5 countries in order to carry Bangladeshi overseas workers amid the weeklong lockdown imposed on Wednesday to stem the spread of Coronavirus.
The five countries are still open for Bangladesh as there is no problem in those countries.
“Special flights will be arranged for overseas workers who got stuck in the country following lockdown. Workers who work in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, Qatar and Singapore can leave the country under the special arrangements,” reports UNB quoting Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Imran Ahmad.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) will formulate a work plan in this regard, said Imran Ahmad.
Replying to a question over when these special flights will start operating, the minister said, “The decision is almost final as we held two meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday. There’ll be another meeting on Thursday where the process of operating flights will be finalized.”
“The recruiting agencies concerned are responsible for bringing the overseas workers with negative Covid-19 certificates to the airport and they’ll have to follow health guidelines as well. Bangladeshi expatriates can also return home only for emergency needs after collecting their release orders from Bangladesh missions and complying with quarantine conditions with Covid-19 negative certificates,” said Imran.
Asked about how many workers have got stuck, the minister said: “It’s difficult to say about the exact number but it might be 25000-30,000 as per recruiting agencies claim. The number may go up to 1 lakh when we’ll launch the special flights.”
President of the Association of Travel Agents of Bangladesh (ATAB) Mansur Ahmed said, “We’ve urged the government to take necessary steps to operate international flights for expatriate workers and new visa holders. We made the demand at a press briefing on Tuesday.”
The government suspended operations of all domestic and international passenger flights in a bid to restrict the spread of coronavirus in the country.
Mansur said, “Many Bangladeshi expatriates, including workers, returned home on leave while many came to deal with emergency family affairs, and they’re still there in Bangladesh. Following the government’s [lockdown] decision, they’ve got stuck. Among them, the visas of many are going to expire soon, while many new visa-holders are eagerly waiting for air tickets to leave the country. If they fail to go back in time, then their visas might be canceled by their employers.”
He also urged the Prime Minister to resume the operation of international flights to some other countries, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, taking into account the situation of the expatriates.
On Tuesday, the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira) held a press briefing urging the government to take effective measures to operate international flights.
In a written statement, Baira said there is no impact of Covid-19 on Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other Middle East countries, and those countries even did not issue any ban on the travel of migrant workers. “So, the decision of the government is illogical. As a result, the workers and recruiting agencies are set to suffer huge financial losses.”
The government has enforced a fresh strict lockdown across the country for eight days from Wednesday in an effort to stop the spread of the deadly Coronavirus.
