Airlines asked to provide details of passengers
As part of a stepped up Ebola screening programme, all airlines have been requested to make enquiries on every Bangladesh-bound flight to identify passengers from West African countries.
The request was made during a coordination meeting among the representatives of airlines, immigration police, health officials and Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh in Dhaka last night.
The disease has killed over 4,500 people so far, mostly in West African countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
A passenger arriving from the region will be taken to the health desk at the airport. The passenger has to collect a clearance certificate from the desk and then complete the immigration formalities.
The procedure will be same for all the three international airports in Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet.
“If found infected, the passenger will be taken out of the airport through the red channel and will be taken directly to the Ebola unit set up at the Kurmitola General Hospital,” said an official of the immigration police present at the meeting.
“We held the meeting to carry out decisions of Thursday's inter-ministerial meeting to stop penetration of any people infected with the deadly virus in the country,” the official told The Daily Star wishing anonymity.
The move comes amid questions raised over the health screening at the country's three international airports after six Bangladeshis returning from Liberia faced no screening at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.
They entered the country on October 9 without the knowledge of immigration, the medical team at the airport and the airlines concerned.
OUTCAST!
Back home, five of the six Bangladeshis are being treated as social outcasts by locals who fear they might have carried Ebola from Liberia.
Of them, Mahbub Sardar of Kalkini upazila of Madaripur talking to The Daily Star yesterday over the phone said the media is responsible for their situation.
Three other Liberia returnees hail from the upazila.
“People who know me often whisper seeing me from distance. When I go near them, they become silent,” said another returnee, Ruhul Amin of Gaurnadi in Barisal. “Even some outright say that I am Ebola infected.”
The five have been tested negative for Ebola after screening by government health officials. No development could be known about the sixth returnee.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh army men working for the UN peace mission in Liberia are safe, Col Nazmul Huda, deputy commander of the medical unit of Bangladesh Army in that country told BBC Bangla Service yesterday.
Around 500 army men with around 100 civilian Bangladeshis are working there, he added. They have restricted the activities of the mission due to the Ebola outbreak.
Md Maruf Hossain, a Bangladeshi who has been working at a company for the last 11 years said some of his countrymen returned home taking leave after the emergence of Ebola, the BBC reported.
The rests are still staying in Liberia maintaining precautions.
Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain said they didn't receive any information from West African countries about Bangladeshi workers being infected with Ebola virus.
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