Nearly 29,000 expat workers likely to return in weeks

ZOOMBANGLA DESK: Foreign Minister Dr A K Abdul Momen on Wednesday said Dhaka is expecting to receive nearly 29,000 Bangladeshi nationals, mostly expatriate workers of Middle East (ME) countries in the next couple of weeks.

“As per our knowledge.. 28,849 expatiates are likely to return here in the next couple of weeks,” he told media in video message after holding the fifth inter-ministerial meeting at foreign ministry here today to discuss on
repatriation of Bangladeshi nationals from different countries due to COVID-19.

The foreign minister said Bangladesh would bring back all its nationals who are opted to return. “We discussed (today) how we can bring them back. We can do it,” he said.

Momen also said so far 3,695 expatriates Bangladeshis returned home in last three weeks from the ME countries. “Among the returnees, large numbers were in the prisons of different ME countries but got general amnesty due to Coronavirus pandemic,” he said.

Besides the expatriate Bangladeshi deported workers, he said, the government had facilitated numbers of chartered flights to bring back so far nearly 2853 stranded Bangladeshi citizens from different countries.

Momen said more flights are being arranged to bring back rest of the stranded Bangladeshis from different countries India, the UK and the USA.