Authorities at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport fined Maldivian Airlines Tk 2,38,000 for carrying passengers to Bangladesh without Covid-19 negative certificates.
The national flag carrier of Maldives carried 200 passengers to Dhaka on Thursday and almost none had Covid-19 negative certificates, Ahmed Zamil, executive magistrate at the HSIA, told the media.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh in a circular on December 4 had announced that anyone wanting to come to Bangladesh from December 5 must have a Covid-19 negative certificate, obtained within 72 hours of their flight.
Caab came up with the strict measure in a bid to
contain the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The regulatory authority also asked all airlines operating to and from HSIA not to issue boarding passes to passengers if they do not have Covid-19 negative certificate.
Recently, the rate of incoming passengers without Covid-19 certificate has increased. In November alone, more than 4,000 passengers arrived without a negative certificate.
The government therefore made it mandatory for incoming passengers to have Covid-19 negative reports.
Ahmed Zamil said of the 200 passengers, 82 Bangladeshi expatriate workers had certificates from Bureau of Manpower, Employer & Training. “That’s why they were allowed to go home on condition of staying in quarantine for 14 days. The other 118 passengers were sent to institutional quarantine,” he added.
