731 Bangladeshis return from Maldives, India, and Canada on special flights

A total of 731 Bangladeshi citizens, who were stranded in Maldives, India and Canada amid suspension on international flights due to Covid-19 pandemic, returned home on five separate special flights yesterday (Friday).

From Maldives, 352 returned on two separate special flights of Maldivian Airlines.

One of the flights landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka at 7:00pm while the other landed at 8:00pm, said Group Captain Touhid-ul Ahsan, director of HSIA.

From India, a total of 184 Bangladeshis returned on two separate special flights of US-Bangla Airlines and Biman Bangladesh Airlines.

Carrying 74 passengers from Kolkata, the special flight of Biman landed at the Dhaka airport at 4:00pm while the US-Bangla flight landed in the afternoon carrying 110 passengers from Chennai, said the HSIA director.

Earlier in the day, a special flight of Qatar Airways landed at HSIA at 7:41am carrying 195 Bangladeshi citizens from Canada.

Bangladesh extended ban on regular passenger flight with all countries except for China till May 30.

The government so far repatriated stranded Bangladeshis from other countries including Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, India, USA, Australia, UK, and South Korea.

Other countries, including the USA, India, Japan, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, Bhutan, Myanmar and different European countries also operated several special chartered flights amid the flight suspension to repatriate their citizens from Bangladesh.