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12 spl flights leave HSIA with migrants

Hundreds of expats stage demo in city


FE REPORT | April 19, 2021 00:00:00


Special flights, carrying stranded Bangladeshi migrant workers, left Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) in the capital on Sunday as per schedule, as of the total 12 flights none was cancelled on the second day of such flight operation.

But the fate of over 100 migrant workers, who had tickets of Singapore Airlines, was uncertain, as the company did not operate any flight yet. These workers staged demonstration at HSIA in the afternoon.

They demanded that they should be provided with any special flight by April 19, as their visa would expire on that day.

Talking to the FE, the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) chairman said he asked the airport director to look into the reasons why Singapore Airlines had not responded yet, as Saudia Airlines did on Saturday. Then CAAB would talk to the airlines.

Saudia Airlines' slot was cancelled after announcement of international flight operation suspension by Bangladesh. The company again applied for permission and got it, the CAAB chairman informed.

He also said they would arrange some other operators - either Biman Bangladesh Airlines or US-Bangla Airlines - to send those migrant workers to meet the deadline.

Meanwhile, around 1,000 migrant workers left on four special flights to different destinations, including Dammam, Riyadh, Muscat and Dubai. Biman, Saudia and Oman Air operated those flights.

But 40 Saudi-bound migrants, having tickets of Biman, were sent back by immigration, as they would go there with visit visa. They said Biman staff members called them to come to the airport and travel.

Biman authority said it was a new decision, taken by CAAB in a meeting on Saturday that no passenger could travel on special flights with visit visa.

Meanwhile, hundreds of migrant workers demonstrated in front of Biman's Motijheel office and Saudi Arabian Airlines' office at Hotel Sonargaon in the capital on Sunday to get their return tickets reissued for going back to their workplaces.

The government, on April 14, suspended operation of all international passenger flights to and from Bangladesh for a week to contain the spread of Covid-19 outbreak.

The authorities later decided to operate over 100 special flights to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Oman and Singapore in a week from Saturday (April 17), so that thousands of stranded migrant workers could return to their workplaces.

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