332 foreigners leave Dhaka, 138 Bangladeshis come back home

A total of 332 Indian and Pakistani citizens stranded in Bangladesh left Dhaka for their respective countries by two separate special flights of Air India and Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) yesterday.

Of the total, 176 were Indians and 156 Pakistanis, SM Wahidur Rahman, deputy director of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA), told The Daily Star.

Meanwhile, 138 Bangladeshis stranded in India and Pakistan, returned home yesterday by two special flights of Biman and PIA, sources at HSIA and Biman said.

Of the Bangladeshi returnees, 80 returned from Mumbai, India, by a Biman flight which landed at HSIA at 6pm, said Tahera Khandaker, deputy general manager (public relations) of Biman.

Carrying 50 Bangladeshis, the PIA flight landed at Dhaka airport at 12:59pm, Wahidur said.

He further said carrying the Indians, the chartered flight of Air India left Dhaka at 11:06am, while the PIA flight left Dhaka airport at 2:41pm with the Pakistanis.

Sources at HSIA said some 158 Bangladeshis stranded in Malaysia for around two months are scheduled to return home today by a special flight of Malindo Air. The estimated time of arrival at HSIA is 11:30am.

Furthermore, the government of Kuwait was scheduled to repatriate 300 more Bangladeshi workers yesterday evening by two separate special flights of Jazeera Airways and Kuwait Airways.

The Bangladeshis were imprisoned or in deportation camps in the Gulf state on various grounds, including not having valid documents.

The Jazeera flight was scheduled to land at HSIA around 7:30pm while Kuwait Airways is scheduled to land at 8:00pm, said Touhid-ul Ahsan.

Kuwait recently repatriated several hundred Bangladeshis. Oman, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia also repatriated several hundred Bangladeshi workers in the last three weeks.

According to media reports, different Middle East and Gulf countries have taken steps to repatriate the expatriate prisoners, following the coronavirus outbreak.