Staff Reporter :
Four out of 12 special flights, scheduled for Sunday, left the Dhaka airport as of 3:00pm on Sunday.
Of the four flights, Biman Bangladesh Airlines operated two-one each on Dhaka-Dammam and Dhaka-Riyadh routes, Group Captain AHM Touhid-ul Ahsan, director, Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, told the media.
He also said Oman Air operated one flight on Dhaka-Muscat route while Emirates operated one flight on Dhaka-Dubai route on Sunday.
Around 1,000 expatriate workers-stuck in the country due to the ongoing “strict lockdown” to contain Covid-19 transmission-returned to their workplaces in Saudi Arabia, Oman and UAE in the four flights, sources at the HSIA, said.
Director, HSIA, said there was no report so far about cancellation of any of the 12 special flights scheduled to fly on Sunday from Dhaka.
Meanwhile, several hundred migrant workers on Sunday gathered in front of Biman’s Motijheel office in the capital and Saudi Arabian Airlines’ office at Hotel Sonargaon for the second consecutive day to get their return tickets reissued for going back to their workplaces in different countries.
Talking to the media from in front of Saudia office, several migrant workers said that their visas will be expired within next three to four days if they fail to go back to Saudi Arabia.
Due to a chaotic situation involving several hundred expatriate workers in front of Biman’s Motijheel office, a migrant worker suffered serious injury to his chest and face as he fell on a glass door at the entrance of the office building.
He was rushed to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Staging demonstration in front of the Biman office, many passengers said they had to face untold sufferings and had to spend a huge amount of money to reach Dhaka from different districts amid the countrywide “strict lockdown”.
“But after reaching here, we are not getting information from the Biman officials on when we will be able to get our return tickets reissued,” Tajuddin Ahmed, a migrant worker from Sylhet, told the media.
Aminuddin, another Saudi-bound migrant worker said he was scheduled to return to his workplace on April 16. But he couldn’t fly due to the weeklong ban on international flights from Bangladesh.
Aminuddin said his visa will expire on April 21. “I will be in serious problem if I cannot go back to Saudi Arabia before my visa expires,” he said.
Omar Khayyam, manager (sales) at Saudi Arabian Airlines Dhaka office, said, “We are providing return tickets from Saturday. Migrants gathered here for tickets.”
Regarding the chaos, he said, “Although we are trying to maintain discipline, the migrants are desperate to get tickets without maintaining the queue.”
He said they had provided tokens last year as there were migrants stranded for six months. Now flights were cancelled for five days due to the lockdown.
“Saudia will operate one flight today and two flights tomorrow,” the official mentioned.
The return of several thousand Bangladeshi expatriate workers to their workplaces abroad, particularly in Saudi Arabia, suffered a major blow yesterday due to cancellation of eight flights from Dhaka.
The government on April 14 suspended operation of all international passenger flights to and from Bangladesh for a week to contain the spread of Covid-19.
However, the authorities the following day decided to operate at least 100 special flights to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Oman and Singapore in a week from yesterday so that several thousand migrant workers can return to work.
