11 Bangladeshis return home
Eleven Bangladeshis, who had taken shelter in Djibouti after being evacuated from war-torn Yemen, reached home yesterday afternoon.
Additional Foreign Secretary Mizanur Rahman received them after they landed in Dhaka.
Three hundred and four Bangladeshis have been evacuated from the Middle Eastern country to Djibouti since the turmoil began in Yemen on March 26.
Of them, 272 were rescued from Hodeida (Al Hudaydah) by an Indian naval ship while 20 from Sana'a by Air India.
SM Mahbubul Alam, counsellor at the Bangladesh high commission in Kuwait, told The Daily Star that the 272 Bangladeshis would reach Kerala in India in two or three days by the same ship and would start for home later.
He said there were only eight Bangladeshis in Djibouti yesterday.
Another Indian ship was set to reach Aden seaport in Yemen to take some 15 stranded Bangladeshis to Djibouti, he added.
According to foreign ministry, the number of Bangladeshis in Yemen is between 1,500 and 3,000.
The High Commission of India in Dhaka yesterday tweeted: “The final number of Bangladesh nationals evacuated by INS Sumitra from Al Hudaydah is 272, including 5 women and 5 children."
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam in his Facebook status thanked the Indian government for rescuing the stranded Bangladeshis from Yemen.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has set up a “Repatriation Control Room” in Djibouti to carry out the repatriation of the Bangladeshis. The Bangladesh Ambassador to Kuwait is leading the effort.
It is expected that more Bangladeshis would be evacuated to Djibouti, said a foreign ministry press release.
Meanwhile, Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj yesterday tweeted: “The evacuation operation from Yemen is over. Minister of State for External Affairs General (retd) Vijay Kumar Singh is returning tonight [Friday night]. We are closing our embassy there.”
Sources said the closure of the Indian embassy in Yemen had left the Bangladeshis, wanting to return home, in a state of uncertainty.
However, International Organisation for Migration officials in Dhaka said the IOM was expected to help rescue some 16,000 foreign nationals, including Bangladesh, from Yemen.
Yemen has been in turmoil for months since the rebels took over the capital, Sana'a, after bursting out of their northern stronghold, according to international media.
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