946 Bangladeshis brought home by special flights

A total of 946 Bangladeshi citizens, most of whom are migrant workers, returned to the country by four special flights from Kuwait, Oman, the UAE, and Russia in the 24 hours since Thursday morning.

All of them were placed in home quarantine for 14 days.

Public health experts warned that allowing these workers to stay in home quarantine might give rise to a further spread of coronavirus as most of them do not have the facilities at their home to follow the quarantine guidelines.

Of the returnees, 743 Bangladeshi expatriate workers, who had been either jail or detention camps of Kuwait, the UAE and Oman, returned as part of the deportation of 29,000 Bangladeshi workers who are supposed to be sent back from different Middle Eastern countries during the pandemic, sources at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) said.

They were brought by three separate chartered flights, Md Mahbubur Rahman, a doctor at the health desk of HSIA, told The Daily Star yesterday.

The rest 203 migrants returned from Russia by another special flight, Mahbubur said.

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen in early April said different Middle Eastern countries, especially the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq, are likely to send back around 29,000 Bangladeshi workers in the next couple of weeks.

Many of these Bangladeshis are now in prisons or detention camps, foreign ministry sources said, adding that they have, however, been granted general amnesty due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Of the 29,000, several thousand Bangladeshi workers have already returned from different ME countries in the last three weeks, said the sources.

All the Bangladeshi workers and others who returned to the country recently were sent to home quarantine after they showed health certificates proving they have tested negative for Covid-19.

But public health experts have raised questions about the certificates.

Earlier, a government-appointed expert committee warned that the country might face a second wave of coronavirus infections if the government failed to ensure strict institutional quarantine for the 29,000 Bangladeshi workers.

Prof Muzaherul Huq, former adviser (Southeast Asia Region) of the World Health Organization, yesterday said in the recent past we had a bitter experience by allowing migrant workers to go into home quarantine.

"Therefore, we should not make the same mistake."