Around 1000 Bangladeshi expats fail to book hotels in Saudi Arabia, miss flights

Around 1,000 Saudi-bound Bangladeshi expatriates missed their flights in two days since yesterday as they failed to book hotels for quarantine stay in the Gulf country.

"I was supposed to board a Saudia flight last night. But I missed the flight as I failed to ensure hotel booking," Tajul Islam, hailing from Noakhali, told The Daily Star.

"At first, officials of Saudia told us to bring Tk 60,000 to book hotel a day before flight date. After coming here at Saudia office in Dhaka's Karwan Bazar, they said I will have to book hotel room from Saudi Arabia through Kofil or my travel agent," he said.

"But when contacted, my Kofil advised me to do the hotel booking from Bangladesh," added Tajul.

"Now we are finding no one at the Saudia office either at Karwan Bazar or at Dhaka airport who can give me actual information on hotel booking," he further said.

Faruk Mia, hailing from Brahmanbaria, and Mohammad Jibon, from Dhaka, also said they missed their flights scheduled for May 25 and May 26 respectively.

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