600 Bangladeshis enter Egypt from war-torn Libya

After a lull of over a fortnight, around 600 Bangladeshis crossed over into Egypt from Libya on Saturday night while more are reportedly moving towards Al Salloum border point.
This sudden influx has caused serious concern among many as International Organisation for Migration (IOM) is currently facing shortage of funds to charter flights, and Biman is also not operating its flights from Egypt.
According to a foreign ministry press release last night, all the Bangladeshis, who have crossed over from Libya, are staying at Al Salloum border point in Egypt.
"Around 200 to 300 Bangladeshis are reportedly on their way to Al Salloum and they are expected to arrive by tonight [Sunday night]," the press release said.
More staff from the Embassy of Bangladesh in Cairo is being attached to the consular team of the foreign ministry, which has been working at Al Salloum since the beginning of the repatriation.
The team has reported that so far the situation is under control and they will issue One Way Travel Permit forrepatriation of those Bangladeshis who have come from Libya without any passport.
However, the representatives of IOM at the Al Salloum border point informed the consular team that IOM is unable to immediately arrange flights due to shortage of funds.
There are now 226 Bangladeshis awaiting repatriation at Ras Jdir border point of Tunisia. No Bangladeshis had crossed over to Tunisia on Saturday.
Biman will organise a flight tomorrow to bring them back from Tunisia.
The consular team at Ras Jdir border point in Tunisia has been receiving frequent calls from a good number of Bangladeshi families from different cities of Libya seeking advice on their return to Bangladesh.
The team is advising them to take a safe route to Ras Jdir and is coordinating their entry into Ras Jdir with the available flights.
Since the beginning of repatriation, a total of 130 flights have operated so far. Among these, 113 flights were IOM chartered on a cost-sharing basis with Bangladesh government while Biman independently operated 17 flights.
As of now, 35,211 Bangladeshis, who were employed in Libya, have been repatriated to home.
Of these, the return of 3,845 persons has been arranged by their employers while some returned on their own arrangements, and 27,101 people have been repatriated by the IOM. Of the total repatriates, 4,265 took Bangladesh Biman flights.
In Greece, one Bangladesh national still remains missing at Hania, Crete Island.
Meanwhile, in Libya, the Embassy of Bangladesh in Tripoli is currently conducting HSC Examinations of six Bangladeshi students.