Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh has planned to rent ships, if necessary, to evacuate its nationals from war-torn Yemen, as India called off its rescue operations.
Foreign Ministry officials on Saturday said that Bangladesh has been seriously considering about adopting ‘alternative method’ to tackle this situation also sought cooperation from different organizations.
“We are ready to do everything. The problem is the ongoing war. It’s difficult to anchor ships there. We have taken alternative methods to rescue our citizens though India has called-off their rescue operation. We have contacted various organizations that agreed on helping us,” Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque said at a press conference at Foreign Ministry in the city yesterday.
According to officials, 15 more Bangladeshis were rescued by the Indian Navy ship from Yemen’s port city of Eden on Saturday morning. With the latest evacuation, a total of 360 Bangladeshi nationals have so far been evacuated from Yemen to Djibouti in two phases with the help of Indian naval ship.
Indian Navy ship rescued 340 and the rest 20 Bangladeshis reached Djibouti by Air India flight.
“Out of them, 11 were brought back to the country. The rest of the Bangladeshi citizens will be brought to Indian port city Kochi of Kerala state first and from there to Bangladesh. So far as we know 553 persons registered to return to Bangladesh,” the Foreign Secretary also said.
Detailing the risk factors, he said, “We have planned alternative measures, including taking IOM’s [UN international organization for migration] support, to bring back 500 nationals listed as willing to leave Yemen. But the situation turned so volatile that even the ships of IOM, for assisting Bangladesh could not touch base.”
“Of them, 360 have been taken to Djibouti with India’s support and 11 of them came back to Dhaka on Friday. Ten more are supposed to come on Saturday evening. The rest were on board a Kerala-bound Indian cruise ship. We’ll bring them from Kerala,” the Foreign Secretary said.
Replying to another question, the foreign secretary said, We have also talked to the Saudi authorities about evacuating Bangladeshis from Yemen. The Foreign Ministry, including the foreign minister, is active round the clock for the safe return of our nationals.”
Meanwhile, ten more Bangladeshi nationals returned home from Yemen via Djibouti on yesterday evening.
Assistant Director of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport Tanvir Hossain said, “They have arrived at 6:45pm in a flight of Fly Dubai. Earlier on Friday, 11 Bangladeshi national arrived home from Yemen.”
Indian High Commission in Dhaka separately confirmed both matters of rescue and transfer on its official twitter account on Friday and Saturday.
Officials said, Bangladesh has set up a ‘Repatriation Control Room’ in Djibouti, a small East African country near Yemen. The Kuwait-based Bangladesh diplomats are conducting repatriation process from Djibouti as Dhaka has no mission in Yemen or Djibouti.
Yemen became volatile with the rise of Shia Houthis who took over the capital six months ago and ousted its President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
The conflict has turned worse as Saudi Arabia’s proxy war with its regional Shia rival Iran, Iran, however, denies Riyadh’s charges that it has been arming the Houthis. Dhaka earlier had endorsed its support to Saudi-led efforts in Yemen.
