Special Correspondent :
Nearly 40,000 undocumented Bangladeshi workers returned home from Malaysia voluntarily taking advantage of the Southeast Asian country’s Back for Good (B4G) programme.
The Malaysian government offered the B4G programme on August 1 to repatriate illegal foreigners, setting the deadline by December 31, 2019.
As the general amnesty programme is near to an end, thousands of undocumented Bangladeshis are crowding to the Malaysian immigration offices to collect their travel documents, sources said.
“Nearly 40,000 undocumented Bangladeshi workers returned home so far since the Malaysian government offered the B4G programme,” an official of the expatriate welfare ministry told The New Nation yesterday.
He said, the government of Bangladesh has already taken necessary steps to facilitate the return of Bangladeshi national by December 31.
“The Bangladesh High Commission in Malaysia is issuing necessary travel pass for the returnees. The Biman Bangladesh Airlines is also
operating additional flights to bring back Bangladeshi nationals from Malaysia. The national airliners also offers subsidy on air tickets for returnees,” he noted.
The official further said Biman has been operating 16 additional flights on the Dhaka-Kuala Lumpur-Dhaka route from December 12. The additional flights will be operated until December 31.
Earlier, the expatriate welfare ministry requested the civil aviation ministry to operate additional flights on the route to bring home Bangladeshi workers from Malaysia.
“There are some 10 lakh Bangladeshis working in Malaysia. Of them, around six lakh were irregular and they faced deportation,” said the official of the expatriate welfare ministry.
When asked, he said, the government of Bangladesh had made highest level of diplomatic effort to re-employed irregular Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia. But it did not yield any positive result due to Malaysian government’s rigid stance in this regard.
Nearly 40,000 undocumented Bangladeshi workers returned home from Malaysia voluntarily taking advantage of the Southeast Asian country’s Back for Good (B4G) programme.
The Malaysian government offered the B4G programme on August 1 to repatriate illegal foreigners, setting the deadline by December 31, 2019.
As the general amnesty programme is near to an end, thousands of undocumented Bangladeshis are crowding to the Malaysian immigration offices to collect their travel documents, sources said.
“Nearly 40,000 undocumented Bangladeshi workers returned home so far since the Malaysian government offered the B4G programme,” an official of the expatriate welfare ministry told The New Nation yesterday.
He said, the government of Bangladesh has already taken necessary steps to facilitate the return of Bangladeshi national by December 31.
“The Bangladesh High Commission in Malaysia is issuing necessary travel pass for the returnees. The Biman Bangladesh Airlines is also
operating additional flights to bring back Bangladeshi nationals from Malaysia. The national airliners also offers subsidy on air tickets for returnees,” he noted.
The official further said Biman has been operating 16 additional flights on the Dhaka-Kuala Lumpur-Dhaka route from December 12. The additional flights will be operated until December 31.
Earlier, the expatriate welfare ministry requested the civil aviation ministry to operate additional flights on the route to bring home Bangladeshi workers from Malaysia.
“There are some 10 lakh Bangladeshis working in Malaysia. Of them, around six lakh were irregular and they faced deportation,” said the official of the expatriate welfare ministry.
When asked, he said, the government of Bangladesh had made highest level of diplomatic effort to re-employed irregular Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia. But it did not yield any positive result due to Malaysian government’s rigid stance in this regard.
