Syed Shemul Parvez :
Hundreds of expatriates have protested at Dhaka Medical College & Hospital (DMCH) for not being vaccinated against coronavirus. They gathered at the hospital’s outpatient vaccination center around 9:30 am on Saturday.
At that time they were seen giving different slogans. To clear the centre, the
members of law enforcement agencies removed them from there.
Later, protesters went in front of the central Shaheed Minar as well as the National Press Club as part of protest.
An expatriate who came to Dhaka Medical College to get vaccinated said, “I registered for vaccination two months ago.
My message has come on September 6, and the next day I come here. But I was not vaccinated that day. Then authority told me to come on Saturday. According to that, I came to this vaccination center again after Fajr Today (Saturday). But the authority again said that we would not be vaccinated even today.
“Most of our expatriate visas are expiring. Besides, everyone is from a lower and middle class family. Most of us gave money to the different agencies. Yet, no one is assuring
us of when we can be vaccinated.
We demand that expatriates be vaccinated as soon as possible, victim expatriate added.
Another agitated protester said that the expatriates bring foreign currency for the nation. So if they are missed out, both they and the nation will suffer, so the government should help them vaccinated as soon as possible.
At the time, many expatriates also claimed that they had received an SMS with a date for vaccination on Saturday. When they could not be vaccinated at the outpatient vaccination center of the hospital, the security personnel of the hospital pushed them out of the area during the protest.
Later, they went to the central Shaheed Minar and started protesting. At one point the demonstrators left Shaheed Minar for the National Press Club.
Director of DMCH, Brigadier General Nazmul Haque, told the New Nation that we have not sent any SMS to any expatriate today (Saturday) to get the first dose of vaccine.” Those who came today had a day to get vaccination on an early date. Then they could not come for various reasons, now they want to come and get vaccinated. We have the first dose of Synopharma here. We have offered them to take synopharma vaccine as it is running here, and you can take it.
And for those of you need AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Modern, we have told them when the government launches these, you’ll come, Director added.
Bachchu Mia, Inspector of the DMCH police camp, said the expatriates who could not be vaccinated in the morning caused some chaos. Later we explained them and removed them from the vaccination center.
