UAE-bound passengers: Covid test within 48 hours before flight will work

The struggle of UAE-bound passengers at the Dhaka airport islikely to be over as the Gulf country issued a new travel advisory yesterday withdrawing the mandatory provision for Covid RT-PCR test at the airport within six hours before departure.

Passengers can now get tested at any laboratory approved by the government within 48 hours before take-off, said the advisory.

Group Captain AHM Touhid-ul Ahsan, executive director at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, yesterday said the UAE government might have issued the fresh travel advisory taking into consideration the declining novel coronavirus infection rate globally.

The new travel advisory came into force at 10:00am yesterday.

The previous stipulation that RT-PCR tests must be conducted at the airport six hours before departure had put passengers, mostly migrant workers, in great trouble as they had to wait for about six to seven hours at the Dhaka airport before undergoing Covid test.

The authorities started operating RT-PCR labs at the Dhaka airport in September last year to comply with the previous travel advisory.

Six RT-PCR labs were initially set up inside Terminal-1 of the airport. However, those were shifted to the first floor of the adjoiningthree-storey car park about a month ago to ease rush of passengers inside the terminal.

Visiting the airport on February 15, these correspondents found several hundred passengers and their relatives waiting for hours under the open sky as there was a lack of suitable waiting areas near the RT-PCR labs.

Most of the passengers reached the airport eight to nine hours before departure. Many of them had to take food at restaurants outside the airport as they could not afford buying from eateries inside.

Several passengers became sick staying long hours at the rooftop under the  sun.

There were not enough toilets for passengers and their relatives, who went to the airport to see off their loved ones.

Travellers also complained of mosquito bites at the airport in the evening.

Around 2,500 passengers, mostly migrant workers, leave Dhaka for the UAE every day, sources at the Dhaka airport said.

These correspondents spent five hours with Md Afzal Hossain, 30, of Shariatpur at the airport to witness his ordeal.

Afzal, who was on his first trip to Dubai, reached the airport around 1:30pm. His flight was scheduled to depart Dhaka at 9:00pm.

As there was no help desk on the ground floor of the car park, he had to wait there for some time. He reached the roof of the buildingand went downstairs on the first floor around 2:00pm to give samples for Covid testing.

It took Afzal over an hour to give samples and complete other processes at the lab. He got the Covid negative test report around 5:50pm.

"We could have stayed here a little comfortably had the authorities arranged some cover on the roof to enable us to shield from the scorching sun."

He said he had to take food from an eatery outside the airport as the prices were high at the restaurants inside.

Afzal along with his relatives roamed around before he entered the departure terminal around 6:30pm.