Govt to subsidise Tk10,000 for return airfare of illegal migrants in Malaysia
The government today decided to give a subsidy of Tk 10,000 per ticket of Biman Bangladesh Airlines on Kuala Lumpur-Dhaka flight to carry undocumented migrant workers under an amnesty programme back for good (B4G) of the Malaysian government.
A top official of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry confirmed this to The Daily Star.
With the subsidy, now a migrant worker will have to pay Tk 23,000 per ticket to reach Dhaka from Kuala Lumpur.
Authorities of different airlines operating on Dhaka-Kuala Lumpur route suddenly increased airfare four to five times than the usual price in recent months, taking advantage of high demand for tickets from migrant workers who wish to return home safely.
Usually, the regular fare for a one-way ticket from Kuala Lumpur to Dhaka is around Tk 10,000-15,000 which shot up to around Tk 50,000-60,000, said sources at different airlines.
Some 33,000 undocumented Bangladeshi migrant workers have returned under the B4G programme from Malaysia as of yesterday, according to expatriates’ welfare ministry.
Around 28,000 more such workers were expected to take the benefit of the amnesty programme, said the ministry sources.
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